White mold in Brazil

More than 10 million hectares of soybean are infested, about 28% of the planted area by an earlier estimate. Embrapa runs its white mold trials in seven states: RS, PR, MS, GO, MG, BA and DF.

The fungus has more than 400 hosts. In Brazil it also hits dry bean (mainly irrigated), cotton, sunflower, tomato and potato.

SourceEmbrapa Soja, Circular Técnica 189; Meyer et al. 2018, via Embrapa; Agrolink

At 20% incidence that is about 344 kg/ha, or 5.7 bags of 60 kg. In the 2021/22 trials, untreated plots reached 75% incidence and yielded about 21% less than the best treatment.

Without management, reported losses range from 30% to 100% of yield.

SourceEmbrapa Soja, Circular Técnica 189, citing Lehner et al. 2017; Agrolink

The fungus survives in the soil as sclerotia, hard dark bodies that stay viable for 4 to 10 years. In cool, humid weather they germinate, form small cups on the soil surface and release spores that infect soybean through the flowers.

Every bad season leaves more sclerotia for the next ones. The disease is a soil problem first, and a season problem second.

SourceEmbrapa

In Embrapa's 2021/22 cooperative trials, across 12 sites:

Lactofen is a herbicide used to trigger the plant's own defenses. Embrapa recommends combining fungicide, biologicals, rotation and grass straw, and states that fungicide remains necessary under high pressure.

SourceEmbrapa Soja, Circular Técnica 189

FRAC rates the fungus as low risk: one cycle per season and little recombination. A 2024 study of 238 Brazilian isolates, collected from 2014 to 2017 on soybean, dry bean, cotton, tomato and sunflower, found no resistance to fluazinam or procymidone.

It found thiophanate-methyl resistance in 13 isolates, all from dry bean fields, mostly in northwest Minas Gerais, carrying the L240F mutation in beta-tubulin. Resistance management is a weak argument in soybean, and a real one in irrigated dry bean.

SourceTropical Plant Pathology, 2024; FRAC via Syngenta Canada

Over 90% of the grain area is under no-till. The recommended program combines fungicide, biologicals, rotation and uniform grass straw.

SourceFebrapdp; Embrapa

113 chemical and 117 biological. The 117 biological products come from 64 different registrants. On the biological side: 83 Trichoderma (harzianum, asperellum, afroharzianum and others), 26 Bacillus (subtilis, amyloliquefaciens, velezensis, pumilus) and 8 that combine both.

SourceAgrofit open data, MAPA, 12 Oct 2026

A product with two actives appears in both rows.

Registrants with the most chemical products for this target: Syngenta (16), Sipcam Nichino (12), ISK (7) and Nortox (7). Most of Syngenta's 16 are seed treatments and cyprodinil-based products, outside the fungicide sprayed on soybean at flowering, where fluazinam, procymidone and boscalid lead.

SourceAgrofit open data, MAPA, 12 Oct 2026

The shelf is fragmented: no registrant holds more than 9 of the 117 biological products.

SourceAgrofit open data, MAPA, 12 Oct 2026

All diseases. No public source splits sales by target. Kynetec and Spark hold that split in paid reports. CropLife Brasil names white mold and rust as the drivers of the growth.

Biofungicides are still the smallest biocontrol segment, behind bionematicides and bioinsecticides. CropLife Brasil, with a different method, puts biofungicides at R$ 1.4 billion (€ 251M) in 2025, within R$ 6.2 billion (€ 1.1 billion) of total bioinput sales. The two series should not be compared or added.

Euro values use today's rate, R$ 5.59 per euro (12 Oct 2026), for every season.

SourceKynetec FarmTrak; Spark BIP; CropLife Brasil

0.6M ha in 2008, 1.2M ha in 2010, over 5M ha in 2015. Growers already know how to buy and use a biological against this disease.

SourceBettiol et al. 2019, Embrapa

Shares are for crop protection in 2017/18, the latest split by channel found in public sources. Distributors still moved 47% of all inputs reaching Brazilian growers in 2025, R$ 105 billion (€ 18.8 billion) in input sales.

Each route sets a different price structure, partner profile and kind of proof. Large growers can buy direct and, under Law 15.070, multiply biologicals on the farm for their own use.

SourceKleffmann, via CADE (2020); Andav and Cepea-Esalq, 11th national distribution survey (2025); Law 15.070/2024

One single Trichoderma strain (T. harzianum IB 19/17) appears in 41 registered products, all approved for organic farming. That points to many companies registering the same strain through the simplified route.

Brazil's bioinputs law (15.070/2024) also lets growers multiply biologicals on their own farm for their own use, without registration. For a large grower, the price reference for a biological can get close to the cost of multiplying it.

SourceAgrofit open data; Law 15.070/2024

In 2021/22, seven biological products were tested at up to nine sites. They cut sclerotia germination by up to 41% and raised sclerotia inviability by up to 65%, with large swings between sites.

In the 2012/13 to 2015/16 trials, two applications worked better than one, and no yield gain was recorded. Embrapa ties results to uniform grass straw, which keeps the soil moist and cooler.

SourceEmbrapa Soja, Circular Técnica 186; Embrapa, Trichoderma and white mold

Many European soil protocols assume the product is worked into the soil after harvest. On a no-till farm, the first questions are about surface application on straw, in soybean, in warm soils.

A product that only works incorporated loses most of the grain area before the first trial.

SourceFebrapdp; Embrapa

A strain similar to one already registered can use a simplified route. That is how one Trichoderma strain reached 41 products. A new organism, or a formula with several strains, has no similar product to lean on, and each strain needs its own assessment.

Brazil's bioinputs law (15.070/2024) may reshape this. Its draft decree was in public consultation until 9 February 2026, and no final text had been published in the sources available in March 2026.

SourceAgrofit open data, MAPA; KLA Advogados; Revista Cultivar

Trials in Europe, in other crops or in pots are a starting point. Brazilian buyers will want soybean field data from the Cerrado, across states and seasons, ideally inside Embrapa's cooperative network.

In those trials, biological results swing between sites and depend on uniform grass straw. Two applications have worked better than one.

SourceEmbrapa Soja, Circular Técnica 186; Embrapa, Trichoderma and white mold

A new mode of action registered first sets the reference for growers, distributors and trial networks. The same organism can be owned by other companies worldwide, and any of them can file in Brazil in parallel.

SourceAgrofit open data, MAPA