Video with Matthew Meisner from Farmer Business Network:

Keys to accelerate the commercialization of bioinputs

One of the founders of the popular U.S. agricultural platform, who will be at the 2nd Biostimulants Congress in Lima, explains that testing bioinputs in the real world as soon as possible, prioritizing practice over perfection and not promising too much are key for the market to develop.

The lack of information on how a bioinput works in the real world is a determining factor in a farmer's decision not to buy it. Yes, there is a lot of data on the effects of these products in laboratories, greenhouses or research farms, but controlled conditions are very different from those in the field.

This is explained by Dr. Matthew Meisner, vice president of research and data science at Farmers Business Network (FBN), a digital platform that works with more than 30,000 affiliated farms that exceed 3,000,000 hectares. Meisner participated in the 3rd Biostimulants and Biocontrol Series, which Redagrícola presents once a month, and which is a preview for the 2nd Biostimulants and Biocontrol Congress to be held this September 28 and 29 at the Westin Hotel in Lima, Peru.

"We focus on testing products under realistic conditions on a large number of hectares and in a variety of production environments so we can find out what are the different growing conditions, weather patterns and regions where each product will be most successful," Meisner explained in his talk "Accelerating the commercialization of bioinputs: farmer and distributor perspectives," part of the online series on Biostimulants and Biocontrol.

Several world and Latin American references in the area of bioinputs have participated in these online events, such as the Spanish Dr. Enrique Monte Vázquez, the American Dr. Denise Manker, the German Dr. Nicolaus von Wirén, the Colombian Dr. Alba Marina Cotes or the Brazilian Dr. Wagner Bettiol. Many of them will be part of the two-day program to be held in the Peruvian capital in September.

Farmer Business Network is a farmer network and e-commerce platform based in San Carlos, California, with operations in Canada and Australia. "The network is at the core of what we do, it's what allows us to deliver our software tools and business opportunities to farmers," says the company's chief data scientist.

In his talk, Meisner presented the perspective of both the farmer and the distributor, pointing out the areas of focus and the challenges and limiting factors in both cases. "Farmers are constantly looking to improve their profitability and know that they have to adopt new technologies and new practices to stay competitive." In the same way, he explained that "there is increasing pressure to mitigate and reduce the use of synthetics."

"It's very important that we focus on real-life practicality and not academic precision. I think a lot of companies are doing a very good job in this regard, but it's something we need to keep focused on”

Dr. Meisner then addressed points that can accelerate the use of biologics in the world, emphasizing testing products in the real world as soon as possible, prioritizing practicality over perfection, and not overpromising. "It's very important that we focus on real-life practicality and not academic precision. I think a lot of companies are doing a very good job in this regard, but it's something we need to keep focused on," he emphasized.

Asked about an eventual arrival in Latin America, Meisner commented that they have a "small, experimental and very initial proposal in Brazil and we are certainly excited about other markets in Latin America. It is a tremendously valuable, growing and very important market from an agricultural point of view, so it is something that is very important to us and something that we are committed to in the long term".

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