Development of nanoformulated products with biodefense activities to promote more sustainable agriculture

• Grant number: 24/09837-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: December 01, 2024
• End date: November 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Plant Health
• Principal Investigator: Guilherme de Figueiredo Furtado
• Grantee: Guilherme de Figueiredo Furtado
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências da Natureza (CCN). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). Campus de Lagoa do Sino. Buri , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Andreia Pereira Matos ; FLÁVIO GABRIEL BIANCHINI ; Larissa Consoli ; Miriam Dupas Hubinger ; Natan de Jesus Pimentel Filho ; Tamíris Alves de Araújo

Abstract

The sustainability of agriculture is an inevitable topic regarding the expansion of agricultureto meet the growing global demand for food and energy. Among the strategies discussed andimplemented worldwide, the adoption of biopesticides has shown promising results. However, thebiopesticide market in Brazil, although growing, still represents a small portion of the nationalagricultural pesticide market. One of the bottlenecks limiting broader adoption is the lack ofstandardized protocols in processes and the low stability of existing formulations. Biopesticides needto advance further in terms of technological maturity for production and application. Therefore, thisproject proposal presents disruptive innovations for Brazilian agribusiness and proposes the use ofmicroorganisms and emerging extraction and formulation technologies for biopesticides that can bescaled to meet market demand. Regional biodiversity will be used for microbial cultivation andextraction without the use of toxic organic solvents, which is an advance for the formulation andapplication stages of both liquid and wettable powder biopesticides. The membrane emulsificationtechnology to be used in the project can produce structures at the nanometric scale with aconcentrated core mostly in the center and surrounded by a continuous film of wall material. Afterspray drying, a fine powder is obtained that protects cells and biomolecules from environmentalfactors such as temperature and radiation. There is also a reduction in moisture content and wateractivity, providing higher chemical stability for storage, reducing transportation costs, and obtainingproducts with desired characteristics such as instant solubility. Thus, the technological impact of theproject is the combination of scalable technologies and knowledge to formulate reproducible andstable biopesticides. This can help the Brazilian community overcome international competition inthe development of biopesticides and insert the results into the productive sector, benefiting theenvironment and human health. (AU)