Project portfolio
Biological inputs
Less synthetic inputs, more economy and greater sustainability
Biological inputs are reality in the fields and yield billions of reais for the economy, due to the use of biological control and biological nitrogen fixation. The search for sustainable technology to control pests and diseases, grow plants and fertilize the soil is increasingly growing in the production sector.
Bioinputs and technologies
Attentive to the fields, industry, and society demands, Embrapa has developed several types of research that are related to biological inputs. These studies are strategically guided by the Bioinputs Portfolio, which includes the themes: biological pest control, plant growth promotion, and phytochemicals. The generated assets are the basis for the development of bioinputs and technologies.
Biological inputs are agroindustrial products or processes developed from enzymes, extracts (from plants or microorganisms), microorganisms, macroorganisms (invertebrates), secondary metabolites, and pheromones, which are intended for biological control. These inputs are also assets focused on nutrition, plant growth promoters, biotics and abiotic stress relievers, and substitutes for antibiotics.
Opinion polls conducted to help identify the portfolio challenges showed that approximately 95% of farmers believe that the biological input market has been growing in the last years, which is also noted by the launch of new field products The acceptance and demand for these inputs, as well as the growth of the industry, place challenges to research. To meet the growing demand, Embrapa has created this portfolio.
Download the folder for the portfolio as a PDF file in Portuguese
Challenges for innovation
In line with its 2020-2030 Master Plan and with the Sustainable Development Goals established in the UN 2030 Agenda, Embrapa defined a strategy to organize its research, development, and innovation projects to meet the priority challenges related to bioinputs in agriculture:
- Increasing the participation of biological inputs in pest control, growth promotion, nutrient supply, antibiotic replacement, and agroindustrial application in conventional and ecologically based production systems
- Expanding the conservative biological control of pests, diseases, and phytonematoids in grain, vegetable, fruit and organic agriculture production systems
- Replacing synthetic inputs with biological assets to control production limitations of the main agricultural commodities (soybean, corn, wheat, cotton, sugar, citrus, coffee, cellulose and swine , chicken, and bovine meat).
- Replacing or decreasing the use of fertilizers of non-renewable origin with bio-based inputs in bean, cowpea, soybean, corn, cotton, pasture, and sugar cane crops.
Portfolio Management Committee
The Portfolio Management Committee works to define innovation challenges and oversee the portfolio of projects.
Chairperson:
- Fabio Bueno dos Reis Junior
- Embrapa Cerrados
Executive secretary:
- Marco Antonio Nogueira
- Embrapa Soybean
Partnerships and business
Embrapa's Innovation Model focuses on open innovation, which relies on partnerships since the beginning of each project for the sake of the market insertion of new assets. Find out how to jointly invent with Embrapa technological solutions that add value to business and enable innovation in the agricultural production sector.
Access the web page for the Business and Technology Showcase