Lack of glyphosate can be overcome with alternatives available on the national market

Brazilian farmers, and also the rest of the world, suffer from the low supply of glyphosate, the agricultural pesticide most used to control weeds. Due to its versatility, it works in the management of soybean, corn, cotton and sugar cane crops, but it is used at least once during the cultivation of most crops, according to Lenisson Carvalho, marketing manager Ourofino Agrociência’s major crops. Despite its widespread use, the expert states that there are already new technologies on the market that can be adopted and, thus, preserve crop productivity.

This is the case of solutions based on glufosinate, a herbicide that works based on a different mechanism of action, which allows for superior results in weed control, including managing those resistant to glyphosate. This is just one of the alternatives that producers can count on in the current situation and until the supply of glyphosate stabilizes.

“Farmers can use pre-emergence herbicides, which ends up reducing the need to use glyphosate in post-emergence of soybeans. In Ourofino's portfolio, for example, we have the PonteiroBR and the Kaivana 360 CS. The Off Road herbicide, which is a glufosinate-ammonium salt, is also another option, suitable for helping post-emergence control of weeds”, explains the specialist.

Carvalho points out that these are tools that offer high efficiency, when used correctly, and they are all part of integrated management in situations where there is resistance to glyphosate. “The use of these molecules, in general, is fundamental, as is the use of residual herbicides that avoid initial weed competition, which consequently generates loss of productivity.”

The losses caused by bush competition, in fact, are extremely negative today. This is because, says Carvalho, any loss now, when commodity prices are significant, results in significant losses in revenue and crop profitability.

As for the products offered by Ourofino Agrociência that are alternatives to the lack of glyphosate, Kaivana 360 CS and Off Road are solutions recently incorporated into the company's portfolio. The first was launched after a four-year investment by the industry in research, evaluation, testing and applications. It is a product that is part of the list of items reimagined by the industry for tropical climate and soil conditions, as is the case in Brazil.

With a microencapsulated formulation, Kaivana 360 CS has a complex system of exclusive photoprotective and surfactant agents, with different actions, which promote the reduction of losses due to volatilization and drifts. PonteiroBR is also part of the portfolio of reimagined solutions and is a versatile sulfentrazone herbicide, with broad spectrum and residual control for nutsedge, different species of string, grasses and difficult-to-manage broad leaves.

In general, regarding the solutions that can be used in place of glyphosate, Carvalho highlights: “They must be applied according to the crop, spectrum of target weeds and crops planned in the sequence, especially because there are products that can give greater residual control and others that do not have residual for subsequent crops and plantings”.