Flying doctors zur Grauschimmel Bekämpfung und als Bestäuber im ökologischen Erdbeeranbau - erste Untersuchungsergebnisse im BICOPOLL Projekt

Summary

Organic berry and fruit production suffers heavily from the lack of effective disease and pest management tools, and from inadequate insect pollination at times. As a consequence, the expanding demand on organic berries cannot be filled today. BICOPOLL expects to change this, and to significantly improve the yield and quality of organic fruit and berry production and thus, farm economics. We will use bees to (i) target deliver biological control agents to the flowers of the target crops to provide control of problem diseases, and to (ii) improve the pollination of organic horticultural crops. We will provide a pan-European case study on protecting organic strawberry from its most important disease, the grey mould. We will improve the efficiency of the entomovector technology via innovative research on bee management, manipulation of bee behavior, components of the cropping system, and on the plant-pathogen-vector-antagonist–system, and will investigate possibilities of expanding the use of the concept into other organic berry and fruit growing systems. This is a highly innovative approach to solving some of the most difficult disease and pest problems in organic berry and fruit production, offering solutions in areas where no solutions as yet exist.