DISAGRO Uses Technology to Move Growers to More Sustainable Practices
16 June 2022 DISAGRO is an international corporation of Guatemalan origin, offering agricultural inputs, digital agriculture, and other lines of business in Central America and Colombia. The company focused on fertilizer when it was founded in 1976 and has been adding the latest technology ever since. AgriBusiness Global talked with Estuardo Jara, DISAGRO Corporate Marketing Director, about what trends the company is seeing and how it is responding.
ABG: What are two challenges you see affecting the ag chemical industry in the next year?
DISAGRO: The disruption of the value chain is one of the biggest challenges our industry has been impacted with globally. This aspect will impact our region for years to come, since it led growers to adapt in different manners. Some of them have considered economic decisions that could jeopardize their future productions and field management, while some others are using nutrient-use efficiency and information in a more innovative approach provided with digital tools and advanced agriculture. The ability to make these tools accessible for growers and the capacity to provide our farmers with practical solutions and information that can be actionable and accessible to make better decisions will be critical. Along these agricultural challenges, consumer demands are growing steadily and requiring more information about where and how their food is being produced, seeking a more sustainable approach to soil and crop management by their growers. These demands push us to adopt and promote new technologies that can improve sustainability and traceability, so growers can adopt protocols and implement better field management practices that allow for better market conditions.
ABG: How is your company helping with these two issues?
DISAGRO: We identify the best-in-class technologies that are scientifically proven to work in our field conditions. For example, our FertiCROP fertilizer line offers the specific balance of nutrients that a crop requires at each stage of development, these blends are full of technologies that make nutrients and the soil ecosystem more efficient. We recently launched BIOSMART TECH, a nutrient enhancer and biological stimulator that activates the soil microbiome and creates a better dynamic between soil, roots, and microbes. These technologies are all included in our dry fertilizers, making the cost of application more efficient.
In 2019, DISAGRO launched AgritecGEO, a digital platform that offers crop consulting, high-tech agriculture services, and high-quality inputs, customized to growers’ needs. AgritecGEO combines conventional and precision farm technologies allowing growers to adopt actionable practices to improve plant health, increase nutrient use efficiency, and adapt to their environmental conditions.
ABG: How do you decide where to focus your R&D efforts, and do you have any new products or services coming out?
DISAGRO: Our goal in DISAGRO is to identify growers’ needs and evaluate and adapt these new products and technologies to our conditions. Regarding agriculture inputs, we recognize and are working on how biostimulants can help our growers mitigate stress in a challenging climate region. We have experienced firsthand the power and importance of integrating biological products to our growers’ practices and how these can improve different aspects, from resistance management to plant-microbiome interactions. We also recognize the importance of supporting our growers in making crop nutrition more efficient by bringing new technologies and improving soil care and health while working hard to configure the essential components to regenerated soils.
To tackle the challenge of maximizing profitability, we will continue to improve DISAGRO digital agriculture service delivered via AgritecGEO through which we provide growers with a flexible way to manage crops, and integrate digital services for soil, plant and air to provide a farm analysis. We are working on integrating a new analytical service called BeCrop® Test to AgritecGEO, which consists of a comprehensive report on soil nutrient cycling, health and biodiversity among other aspects delivered in a user-friendly dashboard of the soil microbiome functions.
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