New, safe, low cost bio-active mineral for crop protection

The world’s demand for healthy and nutritious food is increasing. Plant pest and disease control is essential to ensure this demand can be reliably met. Chemical residue and environmental impact and sustainability concerns relating to pesticide use is growing. In response to these challenges, Calix has developed BOOSTER-Mag; a safe, inexpensive, environmentally friendly crop protection product, using its unique mineral processing technology.

BOOSTER-Mag is a highly differentiated product and is the first crop protection development in the world based on bio-active magnesium oxide (MgO). Magnesium is known to be an essential trace element for all life and the active is also generally regarded as safe (GRAS). Calix has undertaken rigorous acute toxicity testing to confirm BOOSTER-Mag is also safe.

Unlike pharmaceutical or food grade MgO which has no known effect, bio-active MgO acts on plant pests and pathogens in a way that is beneficial to plant health.

Calix has commissioned independent efficacy evaluations which confirm treatment coincides with statistically significant inhibition of a broad range of destructive plant diseases and insect pests. Its non-lethal mode of action reduces the risk of resistance development and has been observed to support the activity of beneficial insects.

Calix has worked with commercial farmers to evaluate the implications of adoption at large scale. The grower trials, across multiple crops and geographic regions, demonstrate conventional pesticides can be substantially reduced, or some cases even eliminated. The implications are profound; enhanced grower productivity, safety, and sustainability.

In 2015, Calix with BOOSTER-Mag won the Australian Technology Competition (ATC) Food & Agritech award & Technology Company of the Year award. In 2016, Calix received an AusIndustry Accelerating Commercialisation award to assist in the registration process (via ten APVMA) as a crop protection product.