"With thousands of growers registered on our site, we believe it’s a great way to learn about the needs and priorities of growers across the globe. That’s why we decided to launch the Biobest poll in September 2016. The first question asked, was about understanding the drivers for growers to implement Integrated Pest Management and reduce pesticide use. About 500 growers took the time to answer and this gave us some really valuable insights."
Out of 5 possible reasons proposed, 43 % of the growers selected Customer demand for environment friendly and safe production as the factor that mattered most to them.
With 30 % of the votes, pests becoming resistant to pesticides was also widely selected as a key driver towards more IPM. Both these responses were given with an almost comparable likelihood in all territories.
Three other options received notably fewer grower votes. Only 6 % of all growers mentioned the risk of exceeding Maximum Residue levels as the number one reason, French growers were strongly represented in this category.
The option “decreasing availability of chemical pesticides” received 10 % of the votes, with a more than average share of Dutch and Belgian growers selecting this option.
Finally, some 11 % of growers not only recognize that pesticide use can have a negative impact on crop productivity, they select it as their number one reason to push towards more natural solutions. Canadian and Spanish growers were among those more likely to choose this option.
Paco Lozano: ”We’ll continue to launch questions of general relevance to biological control and pollination as poll questions on our website. It provides us with an interesting way of further qualifying what we learn in direct interaction with our customers. It makes our insights more quantitative and allows us to recognize differences in point of view by geography or crop. Of course, upon voting in the poll, growers can immediately see the overall voting result. We also plan to share any further insights gained from the poll with the grower community. We encourage people to log in and cast their vote. I believe it’s a great tool to share points of view and it can help in jointly advancing the case for natural crop care solutions.”
For more information
Biobest Belgium NV
Ilse Velden 18
2260 Westerlo - Belgium
T +32 14 25 79 80
F +32 14 25 79 82