Bio-products: key components of sustainable agriculture

Abstract

The so-called Green Revolution that began in the 1940s, resulted in a great increase in world agricultural production, due to the intensification of cultivated areas, the massive use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, heavy machinery and technological advances in irrigation. This advance, however, had negative consequences, such as the decrease of biodiversity, the appearance of resistant pests, imbalances in agroecosystems and harmful effects on the environment. Given this, the research was oriented towards sustainable agriculture, that is, to an economically and socially acceptable
production and in harmony with the environment. An alternative to the traditional management of crops is the use of bio-products. These products of biological origin fulfill pesticide functions, fertilizers or inducers of plant defense. In Argentina its use began in 1957, mainly as biofertilizers of microbial origin intended for nitrogen fixation. In 2013, the Advisory Committee on Bio-products for Agricultural Use (CABUA) which advises on the technical aspects of quality, efficacy and biosecurity that agricultural bio-products must meet for their release into the agroecosystem, was formed.