Grainswest - Tech 2024

Tech 2024 grainswest.com 39 tolerance to environmental stress and/or improve crop quality. The survey did not include rhizobial inoculants for pulse crops or nitrogen fertilizer stabilizers. Of the 1,805 farmers surveyed, 1,104 operate in Western Canada. Of these, 26 per cent use biostimulants on their farms. According to Sarah Healy, one of Stratus’s market research managers, significantly more farmers are now curious about the use of biostimulants than in 2022. “We saw a statistically significant shift from negative attitudes to positive attitudes, and that was among both users and non-users,” she said. “Fewer are unconvinced, reluctant or in the will-never-use or snake-oil categories.” Used by nine per cent of Canadian farmers, beneficial bacteria and fungi was the most common biostimulant type in 2023. This category, said Healy, is dominated by the long- standing use of JumpStart in Western Canada. For use with a broad range of crops that includes canola and all wheat, this seed treatment contains a beneficial fungi that makes soil phosphate more available for uptake by the plant. A further eight per cent of farmers reported using a nitrogen-fixing biological that year. This category, led by Envita, saw slightly lower market penetration on the Prairies. The survey found 56 per cent of Canadian farmers are satisfied with the biostimulant brand they used in 2023, and overall use was stable compared to 2022. Of those surveyed, 23 per cent used a biological product in 2023. The protein hydrolysate category had the highest level of satisfaction, while contentment with seaweed extracts also showed marked improvement. Nitrogen-fixing biologicals saw the fewest satisfied users and the most dissatisfied users. Satisfaction with nitrogen-fixing biologicals was higher in 2023 than it was in 2022, however. Stratus also conducts an annual study of retailers to gauge their willingness to recommend these products. Its 2023 survey results were set to be released July 12. Healy noted retailers are also increasingly confident in their assessment of biologicals, and 2023 saw a slight increase in perceptions of strong performance. “However, collectively across all biological products sold, on average only 45 per cent of the time were retailers able to provide a good to excellent performance rating,” Healy pointed out. “Most commonly we find that there is still hesitation and uncertainty around performance. We know that confidence in these biostimulant products is really going to make or break whether or not they’re going to recommend them.” BIOLOGICAL REGULATION Around the world, authorities generally recognize biological plant protection products as beneficial tools that differ from their chemical counterparts. However, regulatory requirements and review processes are often inconsistent. Biologicals and conventional chemicals may be registered in a similar manner, or not. Data requirements can be minimal or the registration process ill-defined. In Canada, biologicals are reviewed by either the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) or the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). Biostimulants fall under the same regulatory framework as fertilizers and are registered by the CFIA, while biopesticides fall under the PMRA’s purview. “Sometimes it’s tied to the actual product,” said Pierre Petelle, president and CEO of CropLife Canada, a trade association representing members of the pesticide and plant breeding sectors. “Other times, it’s tied to the claims they’re trying to make about the product.” This approach has illuminated new challenges as single ingredients may have several uses. For instance, there are now two products on the market that contain the exact same biological ingredient. During the registration process, one was reviewed by the CFIA as a biostimulant. The other, a biopesticide, fell to the PMRA. “One of the issues that’s been raised to us is a product that goes through the PMRA stream, it’s much more rigorous. There’s data, there’s a review, there’s costs involved, versus the CFIA approach, which is a lighter touch,” said Petelle. Such situations raise questions of fairness. If a farmer knows the two products are the same, though the claims are different, they could simply buy the biostimulant for use as a biopesticide. This would give an unfair advantage to the company that went through the PMRA process. “We don’t think it’s a widespread, significant issue, but there have been a couple of examples raised to us where that’s the case,” said Petelle. “We’re discussing with our members whether anything can or should be done.” CropLife works to ensure Canadian biostimulant regulations line up with those in export markets. While assuring farmers they can use these products without repercussion, “If companies are honest with themselves, the first generation of biologicals from 20 years ago went out early and with mediocre results.” — Russ Putland