Exploratory Landscape
Landscaping of pheromone-based solutions for aphid management
Client overview
The client is an agricultural technology company who is developing insect pheromones for use in natural crop management. Their aim is to enable more effective and sustainable pest control while reducing the reliance on chemical pesticides. One of their target pests of interest is the aphid and the client would like to better understand the applicability of pheromones to aphids. The client therefore engaged Strategic Allies Ltd (SAL) to conduct an exploratory landscape to address three specific questions i.e. (1) What are the current approaches used for managing aphids? (2) What crops are most affected by aphids? (3) Who is developing pheromone-based solutions targeting aphids?
The search
SAL performed an exploratory landscape using secondary sources (i.e. company websites, trade presses, scientific journals, patent database, etc.) to address the client’s three specific questions. Insights gathered on the variety of physical, chemical and biological approaches currently adopted for managing aphids were presented. This included providing the client with examples of products that are commercially available or near commercialisation and a top level overview of organisations who are actively developing solutions in this space. Data on crop yield loss due to infestation of aphids were also captured so as to help the client identify the types of crops that may benefit from their initial test trials. SAL also conducted a targeted patent search to identify relevant innovations that described the use of pheromones for the monitoring and/or control of aphids. All of these findings were then summarised in the report and delivered to the client within a 4-week timeline.
“SAL have identified technologies that we were not aware of…. Useful competitive intelligence…”
Outcome
SAL presented close to 20 organisations that are active in the development of technological solutions for managing aphids and identified 5 main crops that have suffered significant yield loss due to aphid infestation in the past 3 years.
Insights generated from this study have been valuable in helping the client to define the company’s future strategy.