Diana Ortiz Botero
Natalia Carolina Cortes Cifuentes
Karla Gonzalez
Universidad Externado de Colombia
Gustavo A Yepes López
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Bichopolis is based on "good bugs that eat bad bugs" with a main objective of detoxifying agriculture by teaching farmers how to use the tool of biological control.
"Biological control is a tool that we extract from knowledge and observation of nature, we do what nature does; achieve a balance between different species but for the case of agriculture below an economic threshold".
This is a technology that does not work without adequate technical knowledge. They have a production area that is responsible for obtaining the bugs that are sold in the market and an area for quality control of packaging, as a differential factor.
Bichopolis was born as an initiative of Alexander Escobar and Yohana Martinez, a couple of husbands who were based on a need for agriculture.
"What we want to do is improve agriculture and use that great potential that Colombia has, which is biodiversity and turn it into businesses that can be tools for cleaner agriculture."
Environmental pollution, resistance of pests to agrochemicals, demands in international markets, problems of phytotoxicity, improvement in quality and productivity in crops, are the main reasons why the use of biological control is attractive .
"Bicholopolis is making a very important impact in agriculture, we have the mission to detoxify agriculture and in some way we have achieved very large savings in water, the amount of poison that we stop applying to plants is evident in better health for the workers, a better quality of the plant, better productivity and better logistics ".
The main problem in the productive stages in greenhouses is the management of pests for three reasons: "the resistance of the pest to the majority of pesticides, the high cost of handling and the high frequency of the applications".
When the biological control is done, there is great progress in the plants in relation to the improvement of quality, rotation, there is no toxicity and a better quality product can be offered to the international market.
"Currently most of the bugs sold are produced by Bichopolis, locally and at very low cost."
Because market demands have forced producers to seek new strategies for pest control, Bichopolis plans to provide healthier food for the population, achieve a change in the country's agriculture, reducing the loss of production with non-use of chemicals, fumigation pumps, among others.
Its greatest environmental impact was "to reduce water in greenhouses, saving 1 million two hundred thousand liters represented by 12% to 15% of the agricultural sector".
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Bichopolis is a company that is specialize in providing solutions of a biological nature for the improvement of the conditions of horticultural crops and agroindustrial production systems, dedicated to the breeding, production, import and sale of natural enemies and beneficial insects for the integrated management of crop pests.
