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NTBase is a food-grade composition that enhances the efficacy of post-harvest fungicides used in fruit without increasing dose rates, enabling more sustainable agriculture.
About
At Nat4Bio, we develop biological solutions for crop protection.
Producing fruit sustainably, in terms of both quantity and quality, is becoming increasingly challenging. Regulatory restrictions, such as the Farm to Fork strategy in Europe, are limiting the use of conventional fungicides, reducing the number of tools available for post-harvest disease management and increasing the cost of introducing new molecules, even natural ones.
In this context, we have developed a new adjuvant solution based on the solid lessons learned from the use of natamycin in organic markets. Through a rigorous scientific approach, we identified synergies with the standard synthetic active ingredients in the conventional market, achieving a formulation that maximizes the efficacy and efficiency of existing fungicides, reduces the need to increase doses throughout the season without compromising control, and facilitates adoption by being applied directly as a tank mix without the need to change processes or equipment in packaging.
With this solution, packers and shippers can comply with new regulatory requirements, maintain the quality of their fruit, and move toward more sustainable and competitive fruit growing.
Key Benefits
NTBase: smarter fungicide delivery for better postharvest protection
- It enables residue levels more than twice as high compared to water-based applications (with thiabendazole showing up to 7-fold higher residues in NTBase than in water during pre-sorting), which translates into an improved pathogen control profile.
- It homogenizes residue distribution, reducing variability and increasing the reliability and consistency of the postharvest protection program compared to water-based treatments.
- The penetration of active ingredients into the albedo and pulp ensures effective pathogen control, reaching internal fruit tissues.
- It stabilizes residue levels over time, maintaining higher concentrations than water-based applications even 40 days after treatment.
- It increases fungicide molecule levels during waxing, which optimizes their effectiveness.
- It may potentially eliminate the need for a second fungicide application, by ensuring sufficient residue levels with a single pre-sorting treatment—this results in lower operational costs, reduced water consumption, and improved effluent management.
- It may allow for reduced use of active substances, facilitating compliance with stricter market requirements (such as those of certain EU retailers) and enabling active ingredient rotation for resistance management.
Applications
NTBase is suitable for citrus, apples, pears and avocados, and evaluations are underway to determine its efficacy on blueberries and strawberries. Our product integrates seamlessly into existing application machinery, without any disruptions to packinghouse workflows, adapting to sprayers, drenchers, sprinklers, and even ultra-low volume applications.