A New Approach to Crop Protection

A New Approach to Crop Protection

Tim Hammerich
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
With California Ag Today, I’m Tim Hammerich.

With increased consumer and regulatory pressure on crop protection products, many companies are looking to develop alternatives to legacy chemicals. Crop Enhancement is one such company that’s taking a novel approach to protection from insect pests. Here’s CEO Damian Hajduk.

Hajduk… “Our approach at Crop Enhancement has been to focus on the plant surface and we wanted to make that surface harder to attack. We've created non-toxic plant-based coatings that protect crops from pests and diseases. We supply them as a concentrate that gets diluted in a spray tank and applied just like other crop protectants.”

Hajduk likens the product to camouflage, so that certain pests don’t recognize the plant as food.

Hajduk… “You know, we thought we were creating a shield on the plant surface that would block insects from reaching the fruit or the plant. But when we look closely, we saw something different. We were actually creating camouflage for plants. So when we place insects on a treated plant, they wander aimlessly over the surface. They don't recognize it as something they want to eat or reproduce on. So they rarely stop to feed. They become malnourished and they gradually starve.”

Learn more about the product, which is still in the development phase, at their website www.crop-enhancement.com.

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