Agenor Mafra-Neto

Dr. Agenor Mafra-Neto is the founder, president, and CEO of ISCA Inc., which for more than 20 years has developed and delivered eco-friendly solutions for the effective management of insect pests that damage crops or spread human diseases.

After growing up on his parents’ farms in Brazil, he studied biology and became fascinated with the potential of semiochemicals—natural compounds that modify animal behavior—to manage insects. These include not only harmful pests, such as caterpillars and malaria-transmitting mosquitoes, but also beneficial insects, such as pollinators.

In 1996, Dr. Mafra-Neto founded ISCA to overcome the technical and cost barriers that had previously limited the use of pheromones and other semiochemicals in agriculture. Under his leadership, ISCA has become a global leader in identifying, synthesizing, and deploying these compounds in the field to protect crops. ISCA’s innovations apply multiple behavioral strategies: attracting pollinators like honey bees to blooming fields, disrupting pest mating cycles, luring pests to small doses of killing agents, or repelling them from crops. Together, these methods boost crop yields while reducing reliance on conventional insecticides. Today, ISCA has made these green solutions available and affordable to both specialty and row crops worldwide.

The urgency of this work has only grown in recent decades. Pollinators, upon which all flowering plants depend, are in alarming decline, while insect pests are becoming increasingly resistant to both genetically modified crops and the conventional insecticides that dominate today’s marketplace.