New Ag International SEPT/OCT 2020
REGEV is STK’s hybrid product that incorporates a botanical extract with a synthetic pesticide difenoconazole in a liquid formulation. The company said this fungicide serves as a “bridge,” providing farmers an easy-to-use crop protection solution while enabling them to lower their chemical load.
REGEV was approved in the U.S. by the EPA on 29 April 2020, according to the issuance documentation. The first shipment arrived mid-June. Talking to New Ag International, Shay Shaanan, STK vice-president business development and R&D, said this first shipment was sent by air freight so as not to miss the application season, but the second shipment was sent by ship. Further volumes will follow and Shaanan said the expectations for REGEV were high in the U.S., which he added was a mature market for biological-based products. Shaanan confirmed there had been good take-up of the product in 14 countries so far, including Latin America, East Asia, Serbia and Israel. STK announced in May 2020 that REGEV had been registered in Chile for the control of powdery mildew in tomatoes and apple scab in pome fruits.
The botanical extract in REGEV is tea tree oil, which is sourced from Australia. Shaanan said the product also has a biostimulant effect that helps the plants to activate their immunity system quicker, thereby improving the yield and health of the plant. This botanical extract enhances the activity of difenoconazole, providing increased disease control while reducing chemical usage and having only one residue, according to Shaanan.
Mode of action REGEV’s modes of action are across two FRAC groups – cell membrane disruption (46) and sterol biosynthesis in membranes (3). The multiple modes of action with REGEV present a very low probability for the development of resistance or cross resistance in plant pathogens, stated the company. In April 2019, STK announced it had partnered with Summit Agro USA, which has become the exclusive distributor of STK products in the U.S. The STK Group is continuing to extend and develop worldwide partnerships with large local distributors. In February 2020, STK and ADAMA announced an exclusive agreement for the distribution of the botanical-based biofungicide TIMOREX GOLD and the 'hybrid' fungicide REGEV throughout Ecuador. “We’re planning a few other hybrids based on this botanical extract,” confirmed Shaanan. These products will likely launch in LATAM first, owing to the quicker time for registrations, explained Shaanan. Any new products would be looking at a launch year of 2022. REGEV is now in 15 countries worldwide, including in the Far East. In November 2019, STK bio-ag technologies announced it had launched REGEV in the Philippines for use on rice to prevent sheath blight and rice blast, and for bananas to combat black Sigatoka.
Shay Shaanan
STK Bio-Ag Technologies and Manus Bio Inc. recently announced a collaboration agreement to develop and commercialize a series of natural plant-based active ingredients as new and highly-efficacious biopesticide products.
According to STK, the first active ingredient in development has demonstrated potent efficacy for insect control across multiple classes of pests that commonly impact fruit, vegetable and row crops.
Because the active ingredient, derived from edible plants, is of low abundance in nature, a major challenge has been to produce at the scale and economics required for deployment as a commercial crop protection solution. STK said Manus Bio is using its advanced bio-fermentation platform and industrial manufacturing capabilities to develop a production process to supply this and other ingredients at the volumes and costs required to enable widespread use as biopesticides. Contd...
“What we are developing with Manus is production methods for active ingredients, and each of the active ingredients will be a component in different types of products,” said Alon Glick, chief technology officer with STK. “We expect them to be in products where they will be the main active ingredient. The heart of our strategy is to integrate them into hybrid products where they will be combined with additional active ingredients.”
The company is “working on two projects with Manus Bio,” added Glick. “The first one is a bioinsecticide and the second one is a biofungicide. We intend them for use in conventional farming, and we hope to introduce them into spraying programs in regular sequences in different types of crops – broadacre, vegetables and perhaps fruit, too.”
According to Julia Levy, director of business development with STK, choosing Manus to partner with was an easy choice.
“We saw that they were able to develop food ingredients that are already used in the food industry,” she noted. “And a strong success in creating and producing food ingredients gave us confidence that they could do the same with plant extracts, that they could be a real solution and a very high-tech solution to our production issue.” Manus Bio will be the exclusive supplier to STK for this first key ingredient as they work together to commercialize this proprietary and patented STK product.
“We feel this long-term partnership is a very good solution to the current production bottleneck,” noted Glick. “With Manus’ expertise in mass production of botanicals, this is the beginning of a long-term partnership that will enable us to bring to the market the solution which has become almost inaccessible – a very small number of actual botanical products for insecticides.”
Added Arye Tenenbaum, CEO of STK: “Manus has proven capabilities in the large-scale production of complex natural ingredients. We believe that this novel active ingredient will help us realize a paradigm shift in sustainable food protection towards healthier, high quality, residue-free food.”
Manus Bio is using its advanced bio-fermentation platform and industrial manufacturing capabilities to develop a production process to supply the active and other ingredients at the volumes and costs required to enable widespread use as biopesticides.
The Desert Research Institute (DRI) in the USA has spun out its first research-based company focused on innovative solutions in agriculture. Tu Biomics Inc. is an agricultural biotechnology company that targets the soil health challenges associated with industrial-scale farming.
In conjunction with DRI’s plant and molecular biology scientists, Tu Biomics is developing a platform of organically derived biocontrol agents (BCAs) as a sustainable, effective alternative to currently available synthetic chemistry options.
In collaboration with the largest garlic grower and shipper in the U.S., the Tu Biomics research team has demonstrated the ability of its BCAs to suppress eight economically significant soil-borne diseases affecting hundreds of agricultural and ornamental plants globally. The team is currently focused on pathogens that impact the key crops of garlic, leafy greens and strawberries.
With campuses in Reno and Las Vegas, DRI serves as the non-profit research arm of the Nevada System of Higher Education. Tu Biomics Inc. was formed with support from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) Knowledge Fund. After GOED funded a $350,000 Knowledge Fund research project at DRI, Tu Biomics subsequently received nearly $1 million in seed financing from venture investors and industry partners.
Marianne Loison, Contributing Editor, New Ag International
Sales of biocontrol crop protection products in France increased year-on-year in 2019, according to the latest sales figures from IBMA France.
Domestic sales totalled €217 million in 2019, an increase of 8.5 percent over the previous year, said the association.
Biocontrol solutions represented nearly 11 percent of the French plant protection market by value in 2019. “This development confirms the sustainable installation of biocontrol at the heart of technical routes for plant protection,” said Céline Barthet, president of IBMA France. The French association has 42 members, including 33 active members representing 90 percent of the biocontrol market.
In 2019, natural substances dominated the biocontrol market (65 percent), followed by chemical mediators such as pheromones (16 percent), macrorganisms (10 percent) and microorganisms (nine percent).
The largest sectors by sales were bioinsecticides (41 percent) and biofungicides (37 percent). Combined with bioherbicides (14 percent) and anti-slugs (five percent) these sectors formed 97 percent of sales. IBMA France aims to pass the 30 percent mark on the plant protection products (PPP) market by 2030, with two biocontrol solutions with complementary modes of action for most uses. This ambition is in line with the intention of the French national authorities for the deployment of biocontrol to lower chemical PPP usage under the second Ecophyto Plan, and with the EU’s Farm to Fork strategy which plans to “reduce by 50 percent the use and risk of chemical pesticides by 2030.”
But innovation could be slowed down, as France is preparing a regulation to separate the giving of advice for PPP from the sale of these products. Originally proposed in 2018, this regulation is set to come into force in January 2021.
"The Ecophyto 2 Plan has been strengthened, in particular by separating the sale of pesticides from advice on their use," said the 2018 activity report by the French Directorate for Food (DGAL).
This measure could have a negative impact on the deployment of biosolutions, according to IBMA France. “Biocontrol products must be exempt from the measures relating to the separation, as they need enhanced support for users,” explained Barthet.
Céline Barthet
