Soybean-based Bioadjuvant will serve growers in multiple ways

An entrepreneurial scientist has set up shop at Dakota BioWorx to bring a soybean-based crop protection product to market. Once on the market, not only will the product create new demand for soybeans, but its properties make it suitable as a spray adjuvant and crop protection agent. Dr. Matthew Cole, the founder and CEO of Pioneer Biotechnology Incorporated, is the maker of the soy-based bioadjuvant.

“That’s an adjuvant that’s naturally produced by microbes. And so, what I’m doing is taking these microbes, producing this bioadjuvant, then we have a biobased alternative to synthetic adjuvants that are currently used in crop inputs,” Cole explained, in a conference room at Dakota BioWorx. “And the beautiful thing about it is this is derived from soybean. I mean we’re fermenting bioadjuvants from soybean.”

Adjuvants enhance the performance of crop protection products by allowing more effective and even application coverage of sprayed crop protection products. What might bring further attention to this bioadjuvant produced from a fermented biomolecule is evidence, according to Cole, that it has its own mechanism of action to treat white mold.

“This could be, maybe in a way, its own bioadjuvant in and of itself that treats white mold,” said Cole, “and then a farmer can maybe also apply an insecticide, and then they get those two modes of action with needing fewer ingredients to spray.”

There is also evidence, cited by Dr. Cole, that the biomolecule being fermented in the Brookings-based lab can treat plant bacterial infections, including Goss’s Wilt in corn.

“That’s a huge bacterial infection. That’ll be another area we look at because there’s not really a mainstream product for bacterial infections for a lot of crops,” said Cole. “There are several good benefits or several different problems we can look to solve with this one bioadjuvant.”

Cole gives kudos to the South Dakota Soybean Checkoff for supporting his work on the bioadjuvant, as well as the South Dakota Soybean Checkoff’s support of Dakota BioWorx itself.

“Being able to have that opportunity to come down here to such a great space and build something of value not just for myself but for the farmers of South Dakota, that’s phenomenal,” Cole concluded, adding, “every day is amazing; I enjoy it.”