a unique blend of cutting-edge technology
Developments
Blum Biologicals’ innovative approach to developing biopesticides is a unique blend of cutting-edge technology and ancient wisdom, all focused on Africa’s rich biodiversity.
Our Process: The 3D's of Innovation
At Blum Biologicals, our unique process is driven by the 3D's: Discovery, Development, and Delivery. This framework allows us to transform natural biological agents into strong, commercial-scale solutions with speed and precision, all powered by our AI-first approach.
Our journey begins with Discovery, led by cutting-edge artificial intelligence. We believe the key to a healthier food system is hidden within nature itself, specifically in Africa's rich biodiversity. Our AI models act as a digital scout, rapidly analysing vast amounts of biological data to identify and predict promising compounds. This process is far more efficient than traditional methods, allowing us to pinpoint the most effective natural biopesticides. We combine this high-tech approach with traditional ethnobotanical knowledge, creating a powerful synergy between technology and indigenous wisdom.
The science behind our Discovery phase is supported by a core pillar: Targeted Biodiscovery. We don’t just search; we target our search with purpose. This ensures we are always looking for the most promising biological agents from the start.
Once a target is identified, we move to Development, where our AI models and scientific expertise work together to bring the product to life. This phase is about more than just finding a compound; it's about understanding and optimising it for real-world use. We meticulously study Fungal and Bacterial Growth Kinetics to understand how our biological agents behave, and we use Genomics and Molecular Biology to analyse and refine their effectiveness precisely.
A crucial part of our development is understanding Plant/Microbe Interactions. By studying how these natural relationships work in the wild, we can create biologicals that work in harmony with the environment. Our team also specialises in advanced Biological Formulation, building stable and user-friendly products. We use advanced techniques like WDG (Water Dispersible Granules) and programmable dual-phase encapsulation to ensure our biopesticides are both highly effective and easy to apply. All our development work is rigorously validated through BioAssays, a testing process that is free from human bias thanks to our AI-mimicked computational systems.
The final stage is Delivery. Here, we use our agile and adaptable pilot plant to scale up production. Our focus on a pilot plant enables us to efficiently demonstrate our technology’s scalability for the African market, ensuring we can meet demand effectively. This final step guarantees that our innovative biologicals are not just scientifically sound but also practical, affordable, and ready to be delivered to growers. By controlling this entire process, we ensure a seamless transition from discovery to a tangible, high-quality product that makes a real difference in agriculture.
Our Technologies
Blum Biologicals’ innovative approach to developing biopesticides is a unique blend of cutting-edge technology and ancient wisdom, all focused on Africa’s rich biodiversity.
Our Technological Approach: The Future of Formulation
At Blum Biologicals, we are global leaders in developing advanced formulations for biological products. As a centre of excellence in this field, we've pioneered two cutting-edge technologies to create a new generation of bioprotectants. These solutions are essential for addressing the challenges of climate change and feeding a growing global population by providing highly stable and effective products for growers.
Dual-Phase Encapsulation
Our proprietary Dual-Phase Encapsulation technology is designed to protect our biologicals from harsh environmental conditions. By enclosing active ingredients in a protective layer, we achieve several key benefits.
- The first key innovation is the inner protective layer, which directly surrounds the sensitive biologicals. This layer acts as a shield, preventing degradation from factors such as heat, light and oxidation. This is crucial because many biologicals are highly susceptible to these environmental stresses, which can cause them to lose their potency before they even reach their target.
- The second innovation is the outer encapsulation layer, which provides an additional barrier and controls the release of the active ingredients. This outer coating is engineered to break down under specific conditions - such as exposure to moisture or enzymes in the target environment - ensuring that the biologicals are released exactly when and where they're needed. This controlled release mechanism extends the product's effective lifespan and provides a more sustained effect.
- Increased Stability: Encapsulation shields the biological agents from damaging factors like UV light, humidity and extreme temperature fluctuations, which are common in agricultural settings. This ensures the product remains effective for a longer period.
- Controlled Release: The formulation is engineered to release the active ingredients slowly over time, providing a prolonged and consistent effect on target pests and reducing the need for repeated applications.
- Improved Targeting: By precisely delivering the pesticide to the intended pest species, encapsulation minimises off-target effects, protecting beneficial insects and other non-target organisms.
- Reduced Environmental Impact: This process enhances the efficiency of the biopesticide, lowering the amount of product needed and minimising its overall environmental footprint.
GRANULOYD™: Advanced Water Dispersible Granule (WDG) Technology
Blum Biologicals has developed GRANULOYD™, a next-generation platform for producing biological water-dispersible granules. Conventional granulation often compromises microbial survival due to mechanical stress and thermal exposure. GRANULOYD™ overcomes these constraints with a formulation system designed for biological integrity, stability and delivery.
- Lattice-Forming Matrix
- Incorporation of lattice-producing excipients creates a micro-structured network on the foliage.
- This lattice improves adhesion of microbial propagules and metabolites, preventing segregation or loss during storage and handling.
- Enhances uniformity and dispersibility upon application.
- Microbe-Metabolite Co-Formulation
- GRANULOYD™stabilises microbial producers in conjunction with their native metabolites.
- Maintains the natural biochemical synergy between organism and metabolite, yielding more consistent and effective field performance.
Conditioning Process A controlled sequence of blending, lattice-assisted granulation, low-stress drying and precision screening ensures optimal particle size distribution, flowability and viability.
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- 12–24 months stability at ambient conditions.
- Full compatibility with global logistics (no cold chain required).
- Enhanced bio-efficacy due to preserved microbial metabolite complexes.
- Scalable manufacturing for broad agricultural deployment.
GRANULOYD™ represents a fundamental advance in microbial formulation science, enabling biologicals to achieve the reliability, longevity and distribution scale once reserved for synthetics.
BlumCoat™: Advanced Coating Platform for Sustainable Agricultural Inputs
Blum Biologicals has developed BlumCoat™, a next-generation coating technology that enhances the delivery and persistence of biological and chemical actives in the field.
- Core Substrate: Unlike conventional coating systems that rely solely on inert minerals,
BlumCoat™ introduces compressed frass biomass from the black soldier fly industry as an alternative core.- This biomass is a circular-economy byproduct with inherent fertiliser value.
- Provides a degradable, nutrient-rich carrier that improves soil health while reducing waste streams.
- Coating Layers: Actives are bound to the substrate through a tailored coating process, which can incorporate:
- Attractants (to improve pest targeting and uptake).
- Nutrients (e.g. iron chelate for mollusc control).
- Biological metabolites (e.g. biological metabolites applied in-furrow for potato pest management).
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- Dual Functionality: Core material itself contributes agronomic value (fertility) while acting as a delivery vehicle.
- Flexibility: Supports a wide spectrum of actives - from micronutrients to microbial metabolites.
- Precision: Particle size and coating uniformity can be controlled for targeted application (in-furrow, broadcast, or foliar dispersal).
- Sustainability: Valorises waste streams from insect farming, turning them into agronomic solutions.
BlumCoat™ thus combines formulation science with circular economy principles to deliver actives more effectively, sustainably and flexibly than traditional inert-core coating approaches.
SorbieCoat™
SorbieCoat™ is a novel formulation technology that uses highly absorbent carriers to stabilise and deliver biological metabolites. The process begins with water-dispersible granules or coated core prills engineered with porous structures. During fluid bed drying, natural metabolites are sprayed onto the surface, where they are immediately absorbed and bound within the carrier matrix.
SorbieCoat's key innovations lie in its formulation technology and its method of stabilising and delivering biological metabolites. This approach addresses common challenges associated with using natural, biologically derived compounds in agricultural products.
- Porous Carrier Technology: The core of SorbieCoat's innovation is its use of highly absorbent carriers. These are engineered with porous structures - think of them like tiny sponges - that are designed to absorb and hold the active biological ingredients. This is a significant departure from simply mixing ingredients.
- Fluid Bed Drying Process: The method of application is another key innovation. Fluid bed drying is a precise and efficient process for applying the metabolites to the carriers. During this process, the water-dispersible granules (WDGs) or coated core prills are suspended in a stream of air while the natural metabolites are sprayed onto them. The air stream ensures an even coating and the drying action causes the metabolites to be immediately absorbed and bound within the porous structure. This creates a stable, uniform product.
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- Stabilisation - fragile metabolites are protected within the absorbent carrier, extending shelf life and preserving activity.
- Precision loading - individual metabolites can be applied to separate granules, creating modular building blocks.
- Co-blending potential - different SorbieCoat™ granules can be combined into a single product, enabling customised biological “cocktails” tailored to specific crops and pest pressures.
By embedding bioactivity into robust granules, SorbieCoat™ provides a scalable bridge between microbial discovery and practical field application.
The Blum Edge
Blum Biologicals stands out in the agricultural industry with its unique value proposition. Our products, designed with sustainability and efficiency at their core, not only deliver high effectiveness but also set a new standard in the industry.
Zero Environmental Harm
Our products are built on a foundation of zero environmental harm. We create our biologicals using naturally occurring compounds from indigenous fungi, bacteria, and nematodes, with a special focus on unique biota from Africa and New Zealand. Our specialised formulations ensure that our products are either beneficial or entirely harmless for soil quality, waterways, and plants, causing no damage to natural habitats during or after use.
Safety for all: Low Human and Animal Toxicity
At Blum Biologicals, safety is not just a priority; it's a commitment. Our products, with exceptionally low mammalian toxicity, are far safer for people, pets, and a wide range of non-target species than traditional synthetic pesticides. When used correctly, crops treated with our solutions are not just safe, but also nutritious for human consumption. We also ensure that our products are safe for crucial beneficial organisms, such as earthworms, predatory insects, and pollinators like bees, which play a vital role in addressing global food insecurity.
High Efficacy
Our commitment to rigorous scientific standards ensures that our products deliver high efficacy. We work closely with academic institutions and industry bodies, and our products have undergone extensive laboratory and large-scale field tests in several international markets. These tests consistently demonstrate that our bioprotectants are not only practical but also as effective as synthetic pesticides, providing growers with reliable results without the harmful side effects.
Speed of Development and Technical Rigour
The traditional pesticide development process can be lengthy and costly, often taking up to a decade to bring a new chemical to market. By contrast, we can develop biological pesticides quickly and efficiently. We achieve this with our unique technical capabilities and rigour, backed by a powerful team of scientists, commercial leaders, and business development executives.
We manufacture all our products in-house and apply a meticulous due diligence process before any development work begins. This includes:
Extensive literature reviews
Thorough market and patent investigations to ensure market viability and uniqueness
Detailed stability and toxicity assessments under various environmental conditions
This rigorous approach ensures we focus our resources on opportunities with significant commercial value. A truly valuable product is not just discovered but is created through a unique methodology. This intellectual property forms the core of our competitive advantage, enabling us to deliver viable, high-quality products that meet the urgent needs of the modern agricultural landscape.
Product Platforms
Biological Insecticides
Biological insecticides, a key category of biopesticides, are pest control agents derived from natural sources, such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, plants, animals, or minerals. Unlike synthetic chemical insecticides, they are often highly targeted in their action, targeting a narrow range of pests while leaving beneficial insects and other organisms unharmed.
Biological insecticides use a variety of natural mechanisms to control pests:
- Microbial Pesticides: These products use living microorganisms as their active ingredient. For instance, the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a widely used microbial insecticide. When ingested by certain insect larvae, Bt produces a protein that is toxic to the insect's gut, causing it to stop feeding and die.
- Botanical Pesticides: These are derived directly from plants that have natural pest-repelling or killing properties. A well-known example is neem oil, which can disrupt an insect's feeding and development.
- Predators and Parasitoids: This form of biological control involves introducing natural enemies of a pest. For example, ladybugs can be released to prey on aphids, or parasitic wasps can be used to lay eggs inside pest insects, eventually killing them.
- Semiochemicals: These are chemicals that influence insect behaviour. The most common are insect pheromones, which can be used in traps to attract pests or to disrupt their mating cycles.
The use of biological insecticides is a growing trend in agriculture due to several advantages:
- Targeted Action: They generally target only the pest causing the damage, which helps to preserve the surrounding ecosystem and biodiversity.
- Reduced Resistance: Pests are less likely to develop resistance to biologicals because they often have complex and varied modes of action.
- Environmental Safety: Most biological insecticides decompose quickly in the environment, which results in less exposure and lower risk to humans and non-target organisms.
Biological Fungicides
Biological fungicides, or biofungicides, are a type of biological control product used to manage or prevent plant diseases caused by fungi and bacteria. Unlike synthetic fungicides that use chemical compounds, biofungicides are derived from naturally occurring sources.
Biofungicides employ a range of natural mechanisms to combat pathogens, often employing a multi-pronged approach that makes it difficult for diseases to develop resistance. These include:
- Competition: Beneficial microorganisms, like certain fungi or bacteria, are introduced to the plant's environment. They outcompete harmful pathogens for essential nutrients, space and access to the plant's surface (such as roots or leaves), effectively creating a protective barrier.
- Parasitism and Predation: Some biofungicides directly attack and feed on the disease-causing pathogens. For example, specific beneficial fungi can physically coil around and degrade the cell walls of harmful fungi.
- Antibiosis: The biological agent produces chemical compounds, such as antibiotics or toxins, that are harmful to the target pathogen, inhibiting its growth or killing it outright.
- Induced Resistance: Certain biofungicides trigger the plant's own natural defence mechanisms. This can lead to a systemic response throughout the plant, making it more resilient and capable of fighting off a wide range of diseases on its own.
The use of biological fungicides is a core component of modern, sustainable agriculture for several reasons:
- Environmental Safety: Because they are natural, biofungicides have a low environmental impact. They don't leave harmful residues in the soil or waterways and are generally safe for humans, animals, and beneficial insects like bees and ladybugs.
- Resistance Management: Due to their multiple modes of action, biofungicides are an excellent tool for combating the growing issue of pathogen resistance to conventional chemical sprays.
- Integration: They can be easily integrated into Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs, working alongside other strategies to provide a holistic and practical approach to disease control.
Biological Herbicides
Biological herbicides, or bioherbicides, are a type of biological control that uses living organisms or their naturally derived compounds to manage and control weeds. Instead of using synthetic chemicals, bioherbicides use the power of pathogens, such as fungi or bacteria, or plant-based compounds to suppress or kill unwanted vegetation.
Bioherbicides typically fall into a few key categories based on their mode of action:
- Mycoherbicides: These are the most common type of bioherbicide and use plant pathogenic fungi. When applied to a weed, the fungal spores germinate and infect the plant, causing a disease that can weaken or ultimately kill it. They are often highly specific to a particular weed species.
- Microbial Bioherbicides: Like mycoherbicides, these use other microorganisms like bacteria. These bacteria may produce phytotoxins that are harmful to the weed or can aggressively colonise the plant's roots, suppressing its growth without outright killing it.
- Allelopathic Bioherbicides: These products use natural compounds, or allelochemicals, that are extracted from certain plants. These compounds can inhibit the germination or growth of weeds, disrupting their life cycle through natural means.
Bioherbicides offer several benefits, making them a crucial tool in modern agriculture:
- Environmental Safety: They are inherently less toxic than conventional chemical herbicides and generally decompose quickly, leaving little to no harmful residue in the soil or water.
- Specificity: Many bioherbicides are highly selective, targeting only specific weed species. This prevents damage to surrounding crops and helps to preserve biodiversity by not harming non-target plants.
- Weed Resistance Management: Because bioherbicides have complex and varied modes of action, they can be an effective way to manage weeds that have developed resistance to synthetic herbicides.
- Sustainability: Their use aligns with sustainable and organic farming practices, helping to reduce reliance on synthetic chemicals.
Biological Molluscicides
Biological molluscicides are a type of biopesticide that uses living organisms or natural compounds to control molluscs, such as slugs and snails, that are considered agricultural pests. Unlike traditional chemical molluscicides, which can be toxic to a wide range of non-target organisms and the environment, biologicals offer a safer, more sustainable method of pest management.
Biological molluscicides operate through a variety of natural mechanisms:
- Parasitic Organisms: Certain microscopic organisms, such as nematodes, are the most common biological molluscicides. These tiny roundworms are natural parasites of slugs and snails. When applied to the soil, the nematodes actively seek out the pests and enter their bodies, releasing a bacterium that infects and kills the mollusc. They can provide long-term control as they reproduce and continue to hunt for new hosts in the soil.
- Plant-Based Compounds: Some plants naturally produce compounds that are toxic or repellent to molluscs. These extracts, when formulated into a product, can be applied as a spray or bait to deter or eliminate pests.
- Biological Agents: Other biologicals may use naturally occurring bacteria or fungi that are pathogenic to molluscs. These agents infect the pests, causing a disease that leads to their demise.
Several key advantages drive the move towards biological molluscicides:
- Environmental Safety: They are biodegradable and pose a much lower risk of contaminating soil, groundwater and waterways.
- Targeted Control: Many biologicals are highly specific to certain pests, meaning they do not harm beneficial insects, pets or humans.
- No Residue: They leave little to no harmful residue on crops, which is a significant concern with some chemical alternatives.
- Resistance Management: Due to their complex and varied modes of action, molluscs are less likely to develop resistance to biologicals, ensuring a more effective long-term pest control strategy.
Elicitors of Systemic Acquired Resistance
Elicitors of Systemic Acquired Resistance (SAR) are compounds that trigger a plant's natural defence system to protect itself from a wide range of pathogens. Think of them as a plant vaccine: they don't attack the disease directly, but instead activate a long-lasting, systemic "immune response" that makes the entire plant more resilient.
When an elicitor is applied to a plant, it simulates the presence of a threat without causing disease. This triggers a signalling cascade within the plant that prepares its defences for a real attack. This process involves:
- Signal Production: The plant produces key signalling molecules, most notably salicylic acid, which acts like a hormone to transmit the defence signal throughout the entire plant, not just in the area where the elicitor was applied.
- Gene Activation: The signal causes the expression of pathogenesis-related (PR) genes, which produce proteins that have antimicrobial properties.
- Defence Priming: The plant is put into a "primed" state, meaning it is ready to respond faster and more effectively to a future infection. This can include strengthening cell walls and producing compounds that attack pathogens.
The resulting resistance is broad-spectrum, meaning it is effective against a variety of pathogens, including fungi, bacteria and viruses.
Elicitors can be both biological and chemical.
- Biological Elicitors: These are derived from living organisms, such as:
- Microbial Compounds: Molecules from non-pathogenic bacteria and fungi, like species of Bacillus and Trichoderma. These can trigger a different but related defence response known as Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR).
- Plant-Derived Compounds: Substances from other plants or from the plant's own cell walls that are broken down by pathogens. A well-known example is chitosan, derived from the shells of crustaceans.
Elicitors represent a key component of modern, sustainable agriculture as they reduce the reliance on conventional pesticides by leveraging the plant's own inherent ability to defend itself.
Pipeline Products
In the Pipeline
At Blum Biologicals, our innovation pipeline is a testament to our commitment to reshaping agriculture through science-driven, environmentally conscious solutions. With a focus on efficacy, safety and sustainability, we are developing a portfolio of next-generation biological products designed to meet the evolving needs of growers – not just in South Africa, but globally.