Experts debate integrated management to control nematodes in agriculture

Around 20 Brazilian researchers and agronomic consultants traveled to Argentina between October 24th and 27th. At the invitation of the DuPont Expert Team program, from the company DuPont Crop Protection, the group participated in a technical meeting in the capital Buenos Aires and visited crop areas in that country. The objective of the trip was to discuss the practice of integrated management to control nematodes in soybean, carrot, potato, tomato, cotton and coffee crops, among others.

According to DuPont, the trip's schedule included a guided visit to tomato greenhouses in the La Plata region. On the occasion, the researchers learned about field results obtained with the application of a new agricultural pesticide in the development phase to control nematodes, called Salibro, which DuPont Crop Protection intends to launch in Brazil in the coming years.

According to DuPont's marketing director, Raphael Godinho, Salibro will introduce innovative technology to help Brazilian farmers successfully manage nematodes such as Meloidogyne, Prathylenchus, among others identified as potential enemies of productivity in agriculture. Salibro is in the development phase by DuPont and, according to Godinho, when made available to farmers it will produce a technological revolution in the management of nematodes.

Nematodes are tiny, microscopic pests with the potential to cause significant damage to agriculture. Estimates from the Brazilian Society of Nematology indicate that the damage caused by nematodes to national agriculture has already reached R$35 billion, with half of this amount recorded by soybean farming. Scholars state that the risks linked to these invisible pests range from small production losses to the rendering of areas unusable for planting. In Brazil, on average, losses caused by nematodes are 20% of agricultural production.