Valagro at the forefront of the global debate on the future of biostimulants

At the opening of the second World Congress on the use of Biostimulants in Agriculture

Valagro,  the leading company in the production and marketing of biostimulants and specialty nutrients, will participate at the World Congress on the use of Biostimulants in Agriculture. This second annual congress takes place from today until 19 November at the Palazzo dei Congressi in Florence and will be attended by more than 1000 delegates from all over the world, an indication of the growing interest from the scientific community and the farming world in this innovative sector for sustainable nutritional solutions for agriculture.

Since 1980 Valagro has been committed to providing innovative and effective solutions for the nutrition and care of plants, helping farmers to do more with less. That’s why the Valagro Group invests more than 4% of its annual turnover every year in its R&D efforts to discover and develop novel solutions; a commitment to fuel scientific research and innovation that brings significant results for the whole sector. These results will be discussed extensively during the World Congress, where Valagro will have a booth and 7 posters along with three presentations, all supported by the work of the Global R&D department, in conjunction with some of the leading international scientific partners such as the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa and the Metapontum Agrobios Research Centre.

Also supporting the contribution of Valagro's scientific research to the debate on the role of biostimulants is Dr. Prem Warrior, Chief Operating Officer of the Valagro Group, one of the 8 keynote speakers at the event.

"Agriculture today is called upon to provide effective solutions to the challenge of the increasing demand for food from an ever-growing world population, combining productivity with sustainability - says Prem Warrior - which is why biostimulants will play an increasingly crucial role in the future of agriculture. These formulations contain substances and/or micro-organisms which, when applied to plants or soils can regulate and enhance the physiological processes of crops, thus making them more efficient; biostimulants can make the plant’s metabolism work more efficiently to increase the yield and quality of the crop; they can stimulate the plant’s tolerance to abiotic stresses and its capacity to recover from these stresses, and finally they can facilitate their uptake, transfer and use of nutrients".

With these properties biostimulants can provide a solution to farmers’ needs to produce bigger and better harvests. Technical processes have so far enabled us to double world production but there’s still much need and scope for improvement: current production has already increased by 100, and it’s set to increase to 172. Crop yields are negatively affected by environmental stress such as drought and salinity (abiotic stress); improving the plant’s ability to tolerate this stress increases the farmer’s potential to improve crop yields. To achieve this objective, Valagro is committed to providing innovative and sustainable solutions focusing in particular on biostimulants and the biologicals sector (biocontrol).

In addition to the themes of sustainable growth and development of crops, the World Conference will also be an opportunity to discuss legislation for the biostimulants sector: Giuseppe Natale, CEO of the Valagro Group, will be addressing the issue of sector regulation in his role as president of the EBIC (European Biostimulants Industry Council), the European association of biostimulants manufacturers, which for years has been engaged in advancing specific regulations for biostimulants to safeguard the interests of both the producers and the investment they make in research and development, and of consumers.