Sustainability and ESG

Multi-year grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

In 2022, we initiated our research into novel biofungicides to control Cercospora canescens, the causative agent of leaf spot disease. This is a devastating disease of cowpea and other legumes that can slash smallholder growers’ output by up to 40%. Our Company received a 4-year grant of $5.98 million (€5.14 million) in total from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to sponsor this research.

Cowpeas – o en called “black-eyed peas”18 a er one of their subspecies – are a subsistence crop, o en intercropped with sorghum, maize and pearl millet. They provide millions of farmers in Africa and developing countries, many of them women, an a ordable source of proteins. Estimates are that cowpeas are cultivated on 14.5 million hectares of land, have a worldwide output of 6.2 million tons, and are consumed by over 200 million people on a daily basis.19

In the framework of this research program, we set up a collaboration with CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, to analyze the disease genome. We are also working on infection tests in our own lab. In October 2022, Vipula Shukla, Senior Program O icer for Agriculture at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation visited the Biotalys headquarters in Ghent. She gave an inspiring presentation on the work and strategy of the Foundation in agriculture globally. At the same time, the Biotalys team was able to explain the activities in our BioFun-7 program as well as our AGROBODY Foundry platform and capabilities.

The goal is to achieve, by the end of 2025, a proof-ofconcept of e ective protection of the cowpea crop from leaf spot by an AGROBODY bioactive with potential cross-e icacy against other Cercospora diseases (such as C. beticola) for broader commercial application across di erent crops.

This project seeks to give the most vulnerable growers innovative, a ordable tools to protect their crop yield and quality while maintaining soil health and biodiversity. This will enhance the lives and health of millions of smallholder farmers, generating an important economical and societal benefit.

Ecofriendly production by fermentation, supported by reliable partners

Our AGROBODY biocontrols are manufactured in an environmentally friendly way. They are e iciently produced by fermentation in microbial production hosts such as bacteria and yeast, followed by filtration steps. This e ective, carbon-e icient method of producing biocontrols limits energy use and waste from production.

In January 2022, our Company signed a long-term partnership with the Olon Group to produce protein-based biocontrols. This world-class contract manufacturing organization (CMO) has valuable expertise in microbial fermentation, one of the most eco-friendly and sustainable technologies for appreciably lowering production’s overall environmental impact. Olon will both handle the large-scale fermentation process of the biocontrols developed by Biotalys in its laboratories in Ghent and purify them into a technical intermediate.

6.2 billion tons worldwide output source: Kebede & Bekeko, (Cogent Food & Agriculture (2020), 6) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (h p://www.fao.org/3/au994e/au994e.pdf).

This intermediate will then be formulated by Kwizda Agro, a reliable manufacturing partner that has assisted Biotalys in developing its first biofungicide Evoca™. Formulation turns an active ingredient into a crop protection product that can be applied to a crop. It’s the last step in producing a biocontrol before packaging and shipment to the customer. Kwizda Agro will formulate the liquid active ingredient of our biocontrols into water-soluble granules as the customer’s end product. It will also package our products.

Kwizda Agro’s state-of-the-art formulation facility in Austria is continuously upgraded to the highest standards of sustainability, health and safety, and quality management. This confirms our a achment to sustainability in every step of production.

In 2022, we also initiated a new partnership with Novozymes, a world leader in biotech solutions, to explore additional routes for the scale-up and production of the bioactive protein of Evoca. Biotalys is also working on a deeper partnership with Novozymes to explore strategic supply and commercialization agreements for the future generation of Evoca.