São Paulo – Copercampos had been studying the possibility of producing organomineral fertilizer for ten years. But it was the fertilizer crisis that started the run for production of the new fertilizer. “With the fertilizer crisis, the price of phosphates rising very much, we sought an alternative, a cheaper source of phosphates for farmers,” said the technical director for Inputs at Copercampos, Laerte Izaias Thibes Júnior.
The organisation, which has over 1,000 associates, established a partnership with the Biological Phosphate Institute (IFB), and started biologically extracting phosphate from rocks. From then on, the process to reach the fertilizer is not that complicated: phosphate rocks are mixed into the organic material – for the time being Copercampos is using bird droppings, but the organisation plans to use pig manure – and the material is then decomposed, with the help of fungi and bacteria. This mixture is united to nitrogen and potassium, in a device that is developed for that purpose, resulting in BioCoper.
Thibes defends his area. According to him, the fertilizer is 10% to 15% cheaper than the traditional product and plants absorb more phosphorous. "With traditional fertilizers, the plant absorbs 20% to 30% of the phosphorus, with the rest staying in the ground. With ours, the plant absorbs as much as 60% to 70% of the phosphorus,” he says. There is still, according to him, the advantage that the fertilizer, when used for several years in crops, recovers the phosphorous that mineral fertilizer left in the earth. This is done by the fungi and bacteria used in the composting.
The Copercampos fertilizer factory started operating in November. Thibes believes that the demand for BioCoper should take place as it is a different product, as well as being cheaper than mineral fertilizers. The formula currently used in the factory is for production of fertilizers for bean, soy and vegetables. But it should also be modified in future, according to Thibes, for crops like maize and what. The technical director said that the alternative should help take the idea to other regions of the country.
The Coonagro should benefit from collaboration with Copercampos, for example. Daniel Dias, the executive director at Coonagro, said that the project is being studied by the cooperative. The possibility of producing 100,000 tonnes, 500,000 tonnes or one million tonnes a year is being analysed. The cooperatives that make up the Coonagro currently produce 600,000 tonnes of chicken bedding, to be used in the production of fertilizer. The studies of the project should be concluded by the end of the first quarter of 2010.
*Translated by Mark Ament
