The Inspiring Journey of Sebastian Calvo: Imparting Innovation and Sustainability in Agriculture with his Brainchild, Surcos

There are some people who have not only demonstrated their ability by building leadership skills and offering pioneer services in their field, but they have also inspired diverse and multifunctional teams and made a lasting impression on their community. One such outstanding personality is Sebastian Calvo. His strong desire to make a positive difference in the world by promoting sustainable agriculture and balancing the use of synthetics and biologicals with cost-effective application techniques drew him to the crop protection and crop nutrition industry.

In order to improve agriculture’s productivity and sustainability, he planted the innovative seed of Surcos out of his love of technology and dedication to finding affordable and easy-to-use solutions for the sector.

Sebastian is an alumnus of the Catholic University of Argentina and has over 25 years of work experience. His upbringing on a farm and the work of his father, a veterinarian, had a significant impact on his entire professional trajectory. Furthermore, his background in business and finance has enabled him to effectively manage Surcos and develop environmentally, operationally, and financially efficient products.

“My professional journey has been motivated by a passion to provide viable solutions that benefit farmers, communities, consumers, and the environment,” said Sebastian.

An Overlay of the Company: Creating an Impact

With a track record of over 30 years in agricultural inputs, Surcos has evolved into a market leader in its specialized field, developing cutting-edge agri-input solutions with a focus on improving crop protection and nutrition.

With a new generation of pesticides that are control-effective, economically viable, and operationally efficient, Surcos aspires to boost the efficacy of synthetic and biological formulations. Surcos portfolio improves farming efficiency, protects the environment, and enables healthier food systems by allowing farmers to apply fewer agrochemicals while optimizing operational field routines and minimizing volatility and health risks for applicators.

By integrating cutting-edge nanometric technology in its products, Surcos led a revolution for delivery methods of active ingredients in crop protection. With this delivery method, farmers can reduce by up to 70% the dose per hectare required to achieve the necessary pest control. Also, this proprietary technology applied to biologicals can transform a product that is not commercially viable given the large doses required to be effective into a formulation that can be used in a cost-effective operation for a farmer.

“With Surcos, I want to lessen the environmental impact while supporting farmers in increasing yields and promoting healthier food for consumers.” “We are significantly benefiting the agricultural sector and the environment by lowering the use of synthetic active ingredients and encouraging sustainable methods,” the visionary leader stated. Surcos stands out for its capacity to intimately comprehend the challenges that farmers face and find, recognize, and develop the appropriate solution to address them. Rather than just researching, Surcos invent innovative, applicable, and easy-to-use solutions by carefully selecting, combining, and adapting existing technologies that meet the pressing challenges of global agriculture.

Clientele: A Thorough Approach To Benefit All!

• With its headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Surcos focuses on offering farmers crop protection and crop nutrition solutions that are economical, practical, operationally effective, and simple to apply. At the same time, they maintain a comprehensive approach that benefits all stakeholders along the agricultural value chain.
• By increasing the effectiveness of the active components and enabling the same pest management with lower doses per hectare, their formulation technology appeals to regulators and communities by reducing environmental impact and residuals in the fields.
• The Business Development team also strengthens and expands its value proposition through its global network of partners, distributors, and toller operators.
• Integrating research institutes, startups, farmer’s associations, regulators, and business partners, the team at Surcos aims at developing a collaborative, long-term working environment to solve collectively the challenges that global agriculture, governments, and communities are facing.

Sebastian’s Take On Leadership

I believe that having a clear vision of what we are trying to achieve and inviting collaborators to nurture and drive the decision-making process is key. Flexibility is essential at Surcos to ensure that employees know new ideas are valued, nurtured, and developed further. Effective communication and team commitment is critical for establishing a sense of belonging to the company and achieving the goals we’ve set for ourselves.”

Impact Of Technological Advancements

At Surcos, they believe that digitalization addresses and measures the productivity, sustainability, and resilience challenges that global agriculture is facing. In the crop protection and crop nutrition markets, it is key to gather reliable field data: from active ingredient efficacy and dose reduction per ha up to the use of water, labor, and fuel during applications; from volatility and EIQ levels of each formulation to compatibility in tank mix and health risks for applicators. Converting this data into insightful information and transforming it into realistic and actionable decisions is key to improve the productivity and environmental footprint of agriculture.

Overcoming the failures along the way

Being an organization that embraces innovation, failure is an essential and acceptable part of the development process. Learning from these failures and turning them into knowledge and insights is in Surcos’s DNA. They released a herbicide a few years ago that provided excellent control while lowering the active components in the formulation and reducing volatility, but it presented operational issues with some spraying systems that were overseen during the development process. All of the sold volumes were recalled, and farmers and distributors were given compensation by the management. After addressing the issue with the formulation and finding a solution, the product was relaunched six months later.

Glimpses Of The Achievements And Accolades

Surcos has garnered a number of technological awards and recognitions from the research community and industrial groups, given the benefits that their proprietary formulation technology brings to the crop protection market. Yet, treating more than 50 million hectares throughout South America is the accomplishment of which they are most proud. This accomplishment prevented the application of over 1,000 tons of pesticides and saved thousands of hours of labor and liters of fuel that would have been consumed in the application process. It is a significant accomplishment in terms of operational effectiveness and environmental protection.

The Future Outlook Of Surco

After being granted several formulation technology patents, Surcos is expanding its Global IP Strategy, testingthe efficacy of the technology, and registering the most market-attractive formulations in each region. With their global licencing programs, they are now building a global and regional network of business partners and tollers.

CEO QUOTE:

A stronger, more sustainable, and more efficient agriculture ecosystem is being developed by the collaborative work of established global companies and start-ups operating in the agri-food sector. These solutions can sometimes be unique and attractive, but they may not always be easy to put into practice. Some of these innovations require farmers to drastically change routines, equipment, and infrastructure. New technologies should bring solutions that address the strategic challenges that farmers face, but they also should be sensitive and adaptive to the long-time proven processes and customs of farmers. Innovators should keep the focus on facilitating the day-to-day operations of farmers so that they can dedicate themselves to producing more and better, which is what they know how to do best.