California’s transition away from conventional pesticides is helping to drive a burgeoning ag biotech market. Walt Duflock, vice president of innovation at Western Growers, detailed the opportunities ahead for pest control advisors during a keynote this week at the annual conference of the California Association of Pest Control Advisors in Reno.
Duflock believes biotech, which includes biostimulants and biofertilizers, will gather as much as $30 billion in agtech investments this year, surpassing alternative proteins and controlled environment ag for the top spot. That gets him more excited than the robots he often works with. He noted that pests are “crushing ag” and the regulatory environment is getting tougher for conventionals—both in California and from EU mandates on California products.
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“Think of yourselves as strategic advisors,” he told the PCAs, as he explained their role in optimizing the mix of traditional chemistries and biologicals to boost farm value. “It's doubling the workload, but hopefully it's doubling the opportunity as well.”
He also urged PCAs to consider robots. Autonomous and precision sprayers could improve operations, lower input costs and add value to the farm products, he explained.
