ABIM Sets Attendance Record

The 11th Annual Biocontrol Industry Meeting was attended by nearly 900 delegates from 48 countries representing 426 companies. The event, held in late October, covered the latest developments in market development, regulatory affairs and novel products for plant protection.
The meeting included an exhibition in which 59 companies were represented, a pair of keynote speakers, a panel discussion, and several presentations throughout the three-day program.
Jim Jones, who will be stepping down as Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP), when the new administration gave one of the keynote presentations.
Jones has been involved in pesticide regulation in the U.S. for nearly 30 years “and the last few years have brought some of the most exciting advances in science in this field,” he says. “Science has evolved so pesticides can now pinpoint specific pests resulting in less impact on non-target species. Biopesticides in particular, have seen an incredible growth in both interest and use in the United States. Biopesticides have preferable profiles since they are less toxic than conventional pesticides, often effective in small quantities and decompose quickly.”
A new addition to the most recent meeting was a focus on biostimulants and the role they play in crop protection. Several of the presentations focused on biostimulants and how they complement biocontrol products. Although biostimulants are growing in importance, the industry still has much to learn about how they can help. As Benoît Genot, Head of Marketing Global Biostimulants and Value-added Nutrients, Arysta LifeScience, put it, “While biostimulants are a growing segment of the crop protection market, a definitive description remains somewhat elusive.”
Genot quoted Professor Patrick du Jardin, from the Université de Liège – Gemblou, who described the category this way: “Biostimulants are defined more by what they do than by what they are.”

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