Ford calls it "the chemical paradigm"; the expectation of instant results from spraying: "To get biologicals into the market, you need to be able to satisfy that psychology of expectation of immediate control."
In 2004 the company produced its first "entomopathogenic" product, an organism based on indigenous fungi that eats insects in the graphic manner described by Ford.
The beauty of the product is that it is non-toxic to humans, but kills insects. But the 2004 version didn't meet the demands of the chemical paradigm. "We only managed to get it to succeed with one grower but, luckily for us, that particular grower [New Zealand Hothouse] happened to be the largest grower in the country," he says.
Hothouse continued to support the company's work, as did Auckland University, Lincoln University, AgResearch and the Cawthron Institute, based in Nelson.
Ford took the formulation back to the lab and in 2008 "we cracked the technology - we understood how to produce the fungus itself and the fungal spores". The fungal product was "synergised", a process he likens to "bolting a V12" engine to the spores so they work much faster. The chemical paradigm was solved.
Ford's team presented its findings to kiwifruit growers and Crop Solutions tailored its fungal product to create a biological insecticide that targets the three main kiwifruit pests: cicadas, passion vine hoppers (which spread sooty mould on the vines) and thrips (small sucking insects).
He says Crop Solutions Kiwifruit will be unveiled later this year.
Another product with general application to control fungal diseases in food crops will be released next year. "We haven't completed all of the science yet, but we refer to it as the red stuff," says Ford.
"We're very close and it's extremely exciting because some of the things we're doing, nobody has seen before.
"The fungi is taking its nutrition and fundamentally modifying it at a molecular level and turning it into something we haven't seen before; it's fascinating."
Asked about secondary dangerous effects from the fungus, Ford says the product has been peer-reviewed to within an inch of its life and is thoroughly safe: "You can go on to our website and see me eating it - I didn't have a fit and die on the floor, I can assure you of that."
Once patents are in place and regulatory hurdles cleared, the product (at present called SF7489) will be brought to a global "ag-chem" market, estimated to be worth US$40 billion ($51 billion).
Ford says the company plans to target rice growers. He notes that there are 200 million hectares of rice grown globally, some of which is afflicted by the fungal disease rice blast.
"We've got our runs on the board in New Zealand, [which] is a very good test bed for us," Ford says. "Crop Solutions is now globally focused."
Ernst & Young has been engaged to raise capital for the global push. "It's been friends and family for some time and we stepped it up last year, but we didn't quite get to the $2.5 million we were looking for."
Capital scarcity is a familiar complaint, one Crop Solutions has addressed by bringing on board as chief executive Martin Riegel, a former chief financial officer for NextWindow, who boasts a proven record for capital-raising.
"We want to do the right thing but we can't do it without capital," Ford says when asked whether seeking foreign ownership is a likely next step. The amount of money the company could raise locally, he notes, pales in comparison with what is available overseas.
He says Crop Solutions is operating in a global market that is moving away from traditional chemical control of food production and needs money to realise its ambition to be a global player.
