Optimizing the integration of biocontrol products in innovative cropping systems

Supervisor/Collaborator: Foteini Paschalidou

Starting date: May 2020

Funding: Consortium Biocontrole

Conventional agriculture is characterized by the use of synthetic pesticides to reduce crop pest and pathogen damage and guarantee high levels of yields. An increase attention toward pesticide toxicity on natural environment and human health has called for alternative and sustainable pest management strategies. A promising strategy involves on one hand, the integration in cropping systems of biocontrol products thus replacing synthetic pesticides and on the other hand, the development of sustainable cropping systems managed with specific agricultural techniques designed against crop pests and pathogens. However, despite  the design of new biocontrol products has been lately improved, there is a lack of centralization and deep exploration of the data produced during the experimental phase of these products thus limiting their integration in innovative and sustainable cropping systems. Therefore, the aim of this project is to bridge the knowledge of different biocontrol products produced by different members of the Consortium Biocontrole and integrate this knowledge in innovative cropping system.

More precisely, we aim to unravel:

• The efficiency of different biocontrol products tested from the experimental networks of the Consortium  Biocontrole, focusing on patterns of failure and success of the tested products
• The efficiency of different cropping systems against crop pest and pathogen to reduce plant damage in the long-term experimental site of “La Cage”
• Understand how to introduce the most successful biocontrol products in innovative cropping systems.