How Guardião delivers value to farmers in Brazil – today and tomorrow

As the complexity of farming increases, so does the need for seed treatments. That’s especially true in Brazil, which encompasses a huge variety of crops, climates and farming conditions. To protect their investments in seeds, Brazil’s farmers need seed treatments that aren’t just effective, but also delivered in an accessible, convenient and complete way – to maximize the protection but not the decision-making workload.

That’s why a new concept is currently transforming the seed treatment landscape in Brazil. It is Guardião (or ‘the Guardian’ in English), Bayer’s integrated platform for seed treatments.

Many farmers were previously used to sourcing products individually. But with Guardião, they can get something more: a complete seed treatment solution, bringing different products together to give young plants multi-layered protection.

Guardião is offered in several crops: initially soybean, and now also corn, cotton and wheat. In each crop, SeedGrowth specialists consult value chain customers and determine what combination of fungicides, insecticides and biologicals will work optimally on their seeds. We supply this tailored solution to multipliers, who treat their seeds professionally before selling them to the market.

“Our strategy used to be fragmented,” says Nicholas Kaam, Commercial Strategy Coordinator for SeedGrowth. “We sold each of our seed treatment products in an isolated way. But when customers consider them individually, maybe they don’t see the value in each one. So farmers ultimately don’t access all the protection we have to offer.

“But when we bring Guardião into the conversation, we’re bringing something more: a new concept, innovation across all technologies, and an easy way to understand our entire portfolio. Plus, it’s a promise to the farmer: you are buying a seed with a different technology that you weren’t getting one year ago. And you will be able to access further innovations into the future.” 

The core concept of Guardião is ‘Total seed protection’. To deliver that, it brings together seed treatments from different categories, including:

• Insecticides: Gaucho, Cropstar, Cernis, Fipronil
• Fungicides: Redigo, Flint
• Biological Nematicide: Vinemco 

Rather than an individual product, Guardião is a complete seed treatment offering, designed to deliver full-spectrum protection across insecticides, fungicides and biological solutions – ensuring maximum performance from each element. Every combination is backed by the Bayer promise: extensively tested for a range of quality and compatibility factors, and supported by our technical expertise and constant testing and improvement.

The result: the right seed treatments are applied in each situation, to provide customers with an optimal solution to perform reliably and address their agronomic challenges. Nicholas explains: “Customers come to us and say, ‘I have a certain problem’, and we can give them a simple response: ‘You can have Guardião.’ Then we include the right seed treatment brands, in the right quantities, to meet their specific needs in their Guardião solution.”

Guardião combinations typically start with our premium fungicidal seed treatments, Redigo and Flint, and add a tailored combination of additional solutions. Examples in soybean for the professional treatment market include:

• Guardião (the new standard for high-performance seed treatment): Gaucho + Fipronil + Redigo + Flint
• Guardião+ (stronger control of sucking pests and lepidoptera): Gaucho + Cernis + Redigo + Flint
• Guardião Bio (stronger control of nematodes, with biological action): Gaucho + Fipronil + Redigo + Flint + Vinemco
• Guardião+ Bio (stronger sucking pest, lepidoptera AND biological nematode control): Gaucho + Cernis + Redigo + Flint + Vinemco

There are two more things to know about how we offer Guardião:

• Any seed is eligible. We offer Guardião for all seeds in eligible crops in Brazil, including third-party seeds. At the same time, all Bayer soybean seeds in the country (such as Agroeste branded seeds) come with Guardião, showing our confidence in the concept.

• It grows as our product offering does. As Guardião is an integrated concept, more products can easily be added to it in future – further increasing the performance and value it delivers to growers. In fact, this growth is already in the pipeline. “Innovations such as EverGol, Reatis and Ladoran are being assessed and prepared for inclusion in Guardião,” says Nicholas. “By positioning new technologies within Guardião, we ensure that it remains a complete solution keeping growers ahead of their challenges.”

Guardião is growing fast. There are already many multipliers working with the concept, across every part of Brazil, from North to South. SeedGrowth’s market share has grown from 1.9% at the start of 2024, to 6% today, with the SeedGrowth country team setting their sights on 15%. Plus, Guardião’s expansion into more crops continues.

This hasn’t just been an incremental gain – it’s been a total step-change for SeedGrowth in Brazil. What made it such a success? “Firstly, the concept is easy to grasp,” says Nicholas. “As a comprehensive solution, it offers simplicity and a complete solution to cover grower needs. And farmers get more products and innovations over time – which is very important in Brazil, as the threat of diseases is growing quickly, and farmers are looking for the very best protection.

“Secondly, it’s effective. Treaters say it’s easy to use in their machines, and farmers say it’s excellent for pest and disease control and ultimately productivity. It’s a platform for us to bring different products – like Redigo, which acts right down into the root of the plant, providing essential protection and support for early development. When we combine Redigo with Flint, we see plants grow stronger, with more green.

“It’s strong, safe protection – but some customers just weren’t accessing it before, especially farmers who treat seeds on-farm, which is about half the market here. Now, we have been running trials with some of those farmers, giving them seeds treated with Guardião. In general, they are so happy with the results, they are coming back next year and saying, ‘I want Guardião from now on!’”

Integrated, system-level solutions are increasingly key to Bayer’s offering all over the world. In some ways, Guardião is a part of that. But also, there’s something different about it. 

Cristiane Borges, Marketing Project Manager for LatAm, gives her view: “While we have similar approaches across the region, what really sets Brazil apart is the level of connection we’ve built. Guardião is not only a winner in terms of performance, it’s also supported by a highly engaged and well-prepared team that works closely with customers.

“This proximity is vital to its ongoing success. Our teams are in the field, collaborating with partners and farmers, providing training, and ensuring the solution is used to its full potential. 

“At the same time, we support customers through our testing and quality-control operation, delivered through SeedGrowth Centers and field testing units. We truly give customers a complete experience that brings them real value and strengthens their trust in Guardião.” 

The first goal for Guardião in the next two years? To increase adoption – and not just with major multipliers. “Smaller businesses are also coming to us and asking about Guardião – which means the message is getting across,” says Nicholas. 

The second goal: to prove beyond doubt that you can trust Guardião. We do this through continued performance and technical advancement. Nicholas concludes: “We want to be on the market’s minds. The goal is that, when they think seed treatments, they think Guardião. So, instead of thinking about a single product, they can think: ‘This is a solution for me. I know it’s going to protect my seeds, without any problems. I can have faith in this.’”