The GFIA is a crucial international platform for introducing vital sustainable horticultural and agricultural technologies to the Southern Hemisphere and convincing ministerial legislators of the urgent need for natural alternatives for this sector’s problems, so says Koppert Biological Systems Corporate Marketing Director, Peter Maes.
A leader in innovative biological pest control solutions and soil and seed enhancement, Koppert is attending this high level international event to promote alternatives to chemical crop protection products and artificial fertilizers and showcase its sustainable solutions to influential legislators and other stakeholders.
This year’s GFIA theme: ‘promoting sustainability and agricultural resilience,’ aptly describes Koppert’s core business for almost 50 years. Exploring nature and using its principles to find groundbreaking innovations for natural pollination, pest management, and soil and seed enhancement, has led to know-how and solutions that have resulted in enormous production efficiency and quality improvements in many crops. It has also led to substantial reductions in the use of chemical crop protection products and artificial fertilizers.
Innovative soil-related applications have enjoyed a special focus at Koppert, the Dutch biological systems leader, in this, ‘The Year of the Soil’, with the company making significant breakthroughs with its plant and soil enhancement product, Natugro, and its seed treatment, Panoramix.
Koppert is committed to finding biological solutions that make agriculture healthier, safer and more productive. This principle is enshrined in its newly defined mission statement in which it strives to: ‘contribute to the health of people and the planet, in partnership with nature.’ This is not only the company’s challenge, but its motivation.
Koppert’s founder, Jan Koppert, was the first to introduce a natural enemy to combat spider mite infestation in his own nursery almost half a century ago. Since then, the success of its holistic biological system applications has led to the company’s position as the market leader in biological crop protection and natural pollination. Besides producing natural enemies and bumblebees, Koppert also produces microbial stimulants and nutrient systems that contribute to strong, healthy, productive and residue free crops. Koppert solutions are currently being applied successfully in more than 90 countries.
‘There are important food availability, food security and food safety issues to be addressed if we are going to be able to feed the projected 9 billion population by 2050. We need to produce food with less input, but higher yields and quality. This means that we need to look at sustainable intensification and produce crops with a lower production risk and less pressure on the environment. And this is were Koppert comes in with biological solutions to create an environment around the plant which makes it less vulnerable to pests and diseases in a sustainable way with less dependence on chemical pesticides and fertilizers,’ Peter Maes concludes.
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Global forum for innovations in agriculture