The agriculture industry has witnessed a rapid growth of innovations. Technologies like autonomous equipment, drone imagery, and chemical applications to seed advancements have highly influenced modern farming. Biotechnology space has also reformed the ag industry whether that be on the seed, the soil, or plants while they are growing. Many of these biotechnologies are improving the resilience, health, and production of crops as a whole. Biovante is one such team of passionate innovators who are striving every day to make farming easy. “We’re passionate about creating products that help you get the most from your land. No one should be working that hard and coming up short at the end of the season,” says Chris Masters, the President, and CEO at Biovante.

Before founding Biovante, Chris was pursuing his education to become a doctor of chiropractic. However, during the time of schooling, he was offered an opportunity to use his education and talents to promote agrochemicals to row crop farmers. It was here that he learned to have a passion in agriculture causing him to study agribusiness at Southeast Missour State University. After spending seven years with an established agribusiness, Chris moved on to start what is now known today as Biovante.

Today under Chris’s expertise and the efforts of the team, Biovante has ranked amongst the top 10 leading companies. In our recent interview with Chris Masters, he enlightened us about the current scenario of the ag industry and how the team is meticulously working to make farming easy. 

What was the inspiration behind establishing Biovante? 

The inspiration behind the start of Biovante was focused solely on soil health. How can we fix a system without going to the core of its existence? There have been numerous technologies sweep into the ag industry to address the side-effects of farming such as; disease, insect pressure, water usage, nutrient deficiencies and losses, and farm proficiencies all the while overlooking soil biology which sustains all life at its core. We felt the direction was headed toward biological solutions and here we are today seeing it play out.  

Could you brief us on the USP and offerings of the Biovante? 

Advanced biotechnology with ease of use. We have developed scientifically sound, stable, and effective products for the end user and the consumer. We have biologicals such as BioCore that can be applied to the seed. Another option is BioRed IF which is a powerful in furrow biotechnology to allow soils a diverse biological microbiome makeup to help plants uptake more nutrients through the root system. And then BioRed BC can be applied on the soil itself with or without fertilizer. Giving growers options because we do not believe in a one-size fits all approach.  Food and human-life quality is directly related to soil quality. 

What distinguishes Biovante’s offerings from the other players?

Within the last 40 years, we have seen tremendous amounts of fruits, vegetables, and grain diminish in nutrient density and this is due to the mass productive strain placed on our producers. These practices have strained the system. The current or most recent models have weakened the soil’s life. We are providing products that are restoring the blueprint of soil to a balanced and healthy biological state. Balance is the key. Many of our competitors focus only on nitrogen availability and loss, however, our main soil-inoculant biologicals go above just nitrogen addressing all seventeen essential nutrients needed to grow a healthy and productive crop.  

Were there any challenges that you faced initially in the journey? 

Lack of adoption and testing verification. In the early years of the company, the majority of the ag community did not see strains of bacteria or fungi in a liquid form as having any dramatic impact on their farming operation. It was hard to validate something you could not see visibly as well as on paper. The approach seemed too good to be true for them. Consistency, transparency, and results have challenged that thinking and are beginning to change the minds of many. There are still critics but many are switching their tune because their neighbor or one of Biovante’s customers has set state, national, and world records. More importantly, major soil health improvements are happening. 

In recent years, what has been the most challenging phase for Biovante? 

Each year offers more challenges for our company.  While everyone wants to see profit gains, educating our customers is challenging. Soil biology is very complex, and many factors influence the level of health of soils. As a company, we look to partner with our customers to educate them about their current situation and then design a plan to implement and track progress along the way.  

According to you, what makes Biovante rank as a leading company amongst the competitors present in the industry? 

The technology is 5-7 years ahead of its time. Many of our competitors restrict the users’ normal farming practices due to the constraints of applying their product by itself or within a few hours so these hurdles make it challenging for the end user. We apply the K-I-S-S method, keep-it-simple-stupid. While our biotechnologies are far advanced we have not made them cumbersome for growers to use.  

What will you list as the top three contributors to making Biovante one of the leading  companies of 2023? 

• New Innovations

• Data/Results

• Consistency 

Throughout the journey of Biovante, which recognition are you the proudest of? 

Biovante has been able to assist top-notch growers in the US to reach world-record levels of production. We are proud to be a part of such notoriety. Along with this, we are most proud to learn that we helped all sizes of farms reach “farm-best” records. To hear a  family farm become more efficient by using our products and can farm another year is so promising.  

What does the roadmap of the Biovante look like for the following year?

We are strengthening our product portfolio so growers will be able to reduce or eliminate different chemical and synthetic products that are currently being used. Many of these products are harmful to soil health, the consumer, and the environment. We look to broaden our customer base while continuing to research and develop more biological products that can improve the soils we need for life as we know them to be better than what it was yesterday. 

Quote:

“Farming isn’t easy, we can help! That’s why we’re passionate about creating products that help you get the most from your land. No one should be working that hard and coming up short at the end of the season.”