UPL Brasil has launched NeoTackler, a bioinsecticide based on the insect-killing fungus Beauveria bassiana, using a new formulation technology the company calls Aurivis. The product was developed at UPL's plant in Ituverava, São Paulo state, and is the first commercial use of the platform, which the company says it plans to take to other markets.
NeoTackler targets three persistent pests: corn leafhopper (Dalbulus maidis), whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) and coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei). Corn leafhopper has become one of the costliest pests in Brazilian maize, both directly and as the carrier of corn stunt disease.
Beauveria bassiana has long been used as a biological insecticide, but it is sensitive to the environment and naturally repels water, so it disperses poorly in a spray tank. UPL says Aurivis combines co-formulants that protect and stabilise the fungal spores (conidia) so they spread evenly over the leaf and stay viable until they meet the pest. The company says the product keeps for up to 12 months without refrigeration, which it describes as the longest shelf life among bioinsecticides on the market, and that it was compatible with more than 90% of the other products it was tested with.
Across twelve field studies, UPL reported an average yield gain of 3.5%. In a soybean trial at Catalão, Goiás, a combined treatment gave 4.3 more bags per hectare than the untreated plot, about 8%. For corn leafhopper, average control improved by 3 percentage points across the trials and by up to 19 points in one at Jataí, Goiás. These are the company's own trial figures and have not yet been replicated in published independent research.
UPL Brasil chief executive Cristiano Figueiredo and biocontrol manager Mariana Yama presented NeoTackler as a complement to chemical insecticides rather than a replacement, pointing to the combination result at Catalão as the strongest in the tests.
Manufacturers increasingly say formulation, not the organism, is what limits how reliably biologicals perform in the field.
Photo: Justin Williams / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Source: Global Agriculture
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