Spraying Adjuvants Program will have a new greenhouse for product performance research

With the aim of accelerating tests, technical analyzes and providing certifications linked to the functionality of agricultural adjuvants, the 'Pulverization Adjuvants' program announces the construction of a modern greenhouse next to its laboratory in the São Paulo city of Jundiaí. An initiative of the Engineering and Automation Center (CEA), of the Agronomic Institute (IAC), an entity of the Secretariat of Agriculture and Supply of the State of São Paulo, the program is financed with private resources.

Adjuvants are chemical products added to the pesticide mixture at the time of application. Technically, according to experts, adjuvants interfere with the effectiveness of spraying and also with the final result of pest, disease and weed management.

“Adjuvants have the function of enhancing the spraying and/or the action of agricultural pesticides on plants in general, adding spreading, humectant or penetrating effects”, summarizes the scientific researcher at CEA/IAC and coordinator of the Spraying Adjuvants program, Hamilton Ramos .

According to Ramos, the greenhouse under construction, also called “greenhouse”, will be ready in 60 days. The new research unit, he adds, will allow expanding the range of analyzes regarding the functionality of agricultural adjuvants on crops such as beans, corn, soybeans and others. “We will be able to reproduce, in the greenhouse, the production environments of crops whose reproductive cycles, at field level, occur at different times.”

Also according to the researcher, the demand for consultations at the laboratory of the Spraying Adjuvants program has increased significantly in the last two months, especially after a large cooperative in the sector started to require functionality reports, issued by the CEA/IAC, for manufacturers and suppliers of agricultural adjuvants.

Ramos highlights that agricultural adjuvants manufactured in Brazil are not registered with the Ministry of Agriculture. “There is no regulatory control, hence the need for the market itself to seek ways to ensure the quality of products of this kind sold in the country”, he says. “Associating an adjuvant with dubious functionality with a good quality agricultural pesticide could result in a loss of investment in the control of pests, diseases and weeds”, concludes Hamilton Ramos.