Wee Waa company recognised at prestigious ag-tech event

Wee Waa has been recognised on the world stage with local company Crop Capsules awarded a top-three finish at Europe’s largest event for the biological pest control sector – the Bernard Blum Award.

Crop Capsules team members Anna Madden and Olivia Bange travelled to Basel, Switzerland for the prestigious ag-tech event.

“Receiving this acknowledgement has been the culmination of almost 10 years’ worth of hard work in establishing our company,” said Mrs Madden.

“It is satisfying to be able to have overcome obstacles once considered too hard for sustainable biocontrol options in broadacre agriculture.

“We are looking forward to working more closely with some of Europe’s largest biological control companies to develop better products for our customers in Australia.”

The Bernard Blum Award, hosted by peak body – the International Biological Control Manufacturers Association – showcases world-wide innovation for a sector worth almost $AUD10 billion and growing at more than 15 per cent each year.

“It is good to see a product that is considering the economic value to growers on a large scale,” said IBMA’s chief executive officer Lucius Tamm, at the end of Crop Capsule’s poster presentation.

The company’s products CottonCAP® and CanolaCAP® were finalists, drawn from 37 submissions in the award category – innovative products assisting in the uptake of biocontrol.

Biological control of agricultural pests involves using naturally derived technologies and processes rather than traditional ‘synthetic’ insecticides.

“It’s really exciting to see how much international interest there is in using more natural methods to protect broadacre crops,” said Olivia Bange.

Crop Capsules CottonCAP® technology has been used to suppress damaging populations of the pest insect, silverleaf whitefly in cotton. In season 2022-23 the capsules were applied to more than 50,000 hectares of Australian cotton, reducing the use of traditional insecticides for this pest by more than 90 per cent.

The recognition adds to the Cotton Capital’s credentials as a growing hub for research and development alongside its impressive reputation for farming and production.

Crop Capsules CottonCAP® technology has been used to suppress damaging populations of the pest insect, silverleaf whitefly in cotton.

In season 2022-23 the capsules were applied to more than 50,000 hectares of Australian cotton, reducing the use of traditional insecticides for this pest by more than 90 per cent.

The application process is unique and exciting in itself – essentially it involves dropping balls (capsules) filled with tiny wasp eggs from planes, the balls land in the crop and the beneficial insects emerge to help to reduce the use of chemical insecticides. The aircraft mounted precision applicator is able to evenly and quickly spread the capsules at between one to three hectares throughout the crop.

With the capsule containment system housing and protecting a population of beneficial insects that hatch and come out from within the capsules and begin to seek out the pest species beginning to take hold in the crop.

The beneficial insects gradually suppress and control the pests through a mix of predation and parasitism.

CanolaCAP® capsules are also returning encouraging results in the suppression of aphids.

Aphids can inflict yield losses in canola in excess of 30 per cent.

Crop Capsules team leader Adam Perkins attributes the company’s most recent success to having a great network of suppliers and a supportive base of agronomists and growers willing to try something different.

“Change is hard, but it’s made a lot easier when all of your supply-chain has a common view of what future success looks like,” said Mr Perkins.