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Study shows more farmers adopting biologicals

The president and CEO of The Council of Producers and Distributors of Agrotechnology (CPDA) says a new study shows that farmer interest, confidence and use of biological crop inputs continues to grow.

Terry Kippley says the results of the study conducted by Stratovation Group show the use of biopesticides, biofertilizers and biostimulants are increasing.

“The study looked at about 600 row crop farmers, and they basically found a 9% increase in the use of biopesticides, which is the largest increase they’ve had.”  He says, “This is the third study that they’ve done and every two years they do the study.”

Of the three biological categories, he says biopesticides showed the largest jump in usage, likely due to increased scrutiny over synthetic pesticides.

“Those are basically those naturally occurring organisms that are used to control the pest, whether it’s insects or diseases, versus synthetic chemistry,” he says.

Kippley tells Brownfield, “There’s over 90% awareness, according to the study, about this general category of biologicals. I think farmers are looking for every edge to try to squeeze incremental profitability out of their operation.”

He expects use rates to continue to climb, and says responding farmers expect biological products to deliver consistent performance and economic value.

AUDIO: Terry Kippley – CPDA