Grow Opportunity: Cannabis Industry

Since the Neolithic Period, which marked the dawn of agriculture some 12,000 years ago, man has been at war. The adversary, adaptable, advantaged by overwhelming numerical superiority and an evolutionary head-start reckoned in millions of years, has won many battles — yet ultimately, we have prevailed.

Some of the earliest scribblings of recorded history document our struggle with agricultural pests and disease — responsible for famine and death across the centuries. And while in North America we no longer face plagues of locusts (though we did through the late 19th century), the stakes remain high. Today, despite less personal risk, failure to implement proper IPM protocols can certainly contribute to the death of a business. Margins are tight, competition is stiff, and companies can’t afford to lose significant portions of their investment due to pests & disease.

Despite thousands of years of progress however, many of the same mitigation techniques employed by early growers are still in use today — particularly in the highly regulated cannabis industry. Soaps and oils have been in use for millennia, and beneficial insect utilization has been documented as far back as 324 BC.

In Israel, an early mover on the medicinal cannabis front, former Biobest Head of R&D and cannabis IPM expert Guy Gafni, primarily employs an organic approach to IPM, which carries on this tradition. I sat down with him virtually to get his thoughts on the challenges he faces today and the industry he helps protect.

So Guy, what are the top IPM issues you’re dealing with in cannabis these days in terms of severity, should things get out of hand?

“It’s hard to say. I think it varies on different farms, but usually I think that the biggest problem is probably aphids. There are a lot of different aphids, but mostly it’s the melon or cotton aphid, and the cannabis aphid. And then it’s spider mites and then grey mold and powdery mildew… some Fusarium sometimes. But when you get aphids you can’t really sell those plants because the aphids also produce honeydew, and next you’ve got different fungi that grow on the honeydew. So that’s a problem. It’s not marketable, you have to throw it away.”

So, there’s a potential for you to lose a substantial amount of your crop if you don’t catch it in time?

“Yeah, and aphids reproduce very quickly. It takes about, let’s say at 25 degrees Celsius, it would take something like five days to become an adult. And then they would reproduce — no mating, no nothing, they don’t need any males. So within five days it becomes an adult and then it multiplies by something like 40 offspring per female, which of course starts the cycle for each of those in five days after that.”

So the infestation increases extremely rapidly — how important would you say early detection is in IPM generally then?

“Early detection is the key. Let’s say it’s also the key for quality, it’s the key for reducing the use of pesticides, and a reduction in the amount of required beneficials. If you can detect pests and disease in time, you can save a lot of money.”

So for detection, most operations use scouts — how effective is traditional scouting with respect to risk management? Are there any challenges with the practice?

“I think you have to be very experienced. In order to do it correctly, you have to know exactly where to look and what to look for. And when you see something, you have to know what it is exactly. Is it a pest or just an insect that came from outside and landed on the plant?

When you have something like, I don’t know, 3000 plants per dunam (1000m2), it’s not easy. You can miss something quite easily, especially when the plants are very tall; then you can’t really reach the canopy and see what’s above. So you have to do a very good job when the plants are still small.”

So when a farm hires you as a consultant, what kinds of changes are you making to IPM related procedures for them?

“What am I changing? Lots of things… different pesticide combinations, I’m changing the way that they spray… even the machinery. I’m using physical barriers, and I’m giving them a lot of different agrotechnics guidance — what to do exactly. Things like deleafing: taking the the lower leaves from the plants in order to reduce different pest populations for example. I explain exactly the biology and ecology of the beneficials and how they interact with both the plant and the pest. So I get into fine tuning to get the maximum advantage from the beneficials. But It can be anything like, I don’t know, mesh nets on the ventilators, and even the materials that they use for cleaning the greenhouse after the cycle. Basically, I change whatever I think may be the problem while also teaching them how to scout and spray more effectively.

So while we are still using all these mitigation techniques employed throughout history, with respect to new digital technology that helps with detection, I know growers can sometimes be a bit skeptical. At Fermata for example, we have a program where we allow you to evaluate our AI pest & disease detection platform at your facility over a cycle for free, in order to prove it works and get past this skepticism… do you think that most farms tend to adopt new technology cautiously?

“If they think that it’s going to be a good solution, then I believe they will try it, but they will not install it across the farm… just in one small area. They will test it, and if they see results, they will probably buy it, because anything that can reduce costs and maximize margins these days they will definitely be interested in.”

I’d like to thank Guy Gafni for taking the time to speak with me today and sharing his perspective on the current state of IPM in the cannabis industry. As we’ve seen, while constantly improving, the basis for methods employed in mitigation have been with us for centuries. However, we are also on the cusp of a digital revolution in the cannabis industry — allowing companies to rapidly respond to issues by addressing the key objective of early detection. It’s a great time to be a grower!