Spray Adjuvants Program and Coopercitrus sign an agreement to evaluate the functionality of adjuvants

The Spraying Adjuvants Program and the Coopercitrus cooperative signed an agreement to begin certifying the functionality of agricultural adjuvants produced in Brazil. Under the agreement, the cooperative will recommend adjuvant manufacturers to evaluate their products in the program's laboratory, located in the city of Jundiaí, on the premises of the Engineering and Automation Center (CEA), of the Agronomic Institute (IAC-SP), an entity of the Secretariat of Agriculture and Supply of the State of São Paulo.

According to Coopercitrus, the cooperative will only sell agricultural adjuvants recognized by the CEA-IAC Functionality Seal, officially launched in recent weeks.

Headquartered in the São Paulo municipality of Bebedouro, Coopercitrus is the leading cooperative in the State of São Paulo in the area of ​​marketing agricultural inputs, machinery and implements, and also one of the largest in Brazil. It has more than 60 branches, technical support and structures for service in different agricultural crops, in the states of SP, MG and GO. Coopercitrus' membership portfolio currently includes more than 35 thousand farmers.

Spray Adjuvants is an agricultural research initiative that brings together the private sector and CEA-IAC. The program's laboratory received representative investments, in recent periods, with the aim of enabling the implementation of the seal, based on analyzes of high technical quality and scientific precision.

According to researcher Hamilton Ramos, program coordinator, adjuvants are products added to the pesticide mixture. “They help with the effectiveness of spraying and phytosanitary control, by transferring a spreading, humectant or penetrating effect, for example. Associating an adjuvant with imprecise functionality with a good quality pesticide calls into question the producer's entire investment in the crop”, highlights Ramos.

For Celso José da Silva, consultant and responsible for adjuvants at Coopercitrus, the partnership between the cooperative and the program will result in information and effective technical recommendations for crop management, covering products, pests and diseases. “There is enormous complexity to be considered in adjuvant recommendations. On the Coopercitrus side, the partnership with IAC will contribute to increasing the quality of our members’ production, which is always the main objective”, highlights Silva.

According to Hamilton Ramos, from CEA-IAC, the cooperation agreement signed with Coopercitrus consolidates efforts carried out over the last 20 years, in the area of ​​research linked to adjuvants. “Adjuvants are not subject to the strict registration requirements of regulatory bodies, as is the case in the agricultural pesticides sector. Therefore, it is necessary for the adjuvant market itself to find solutions to prove the functionality of brands sold in the country”, he emphasizes.

“We advocate that the criteria and methods used in evaluating the functionality of agricultural adjuvants, currently under our responsibility, be discussed with manufacturers, researchers and users of the products, within the scope of technical chambers such as ABNT (Brazilian Association of Technical Standards). The ideal objective, as we understand it, is to develop a set of standards that result in the creation of a definitive Official Certification System, but this process takes time”, observes Ramos.

According to the researcher, after Coopercitrus joins, the Spray Adjuvants program laboratory is expected to announce, in the coming weeks, the formalization of cooperation terms with other companies operating in the adjuvants market, including manufacturers and distributors.