Biological fight to limit the damage of pesticides and herbicides: this is the new sustainable frontier of agriculture
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himBiological fight to limit the damage of pesticides and herbicides: the new sustainable frontier of agriculture is to destroy crop pests with other insects. The experiments are multiplying, even here. And they work.
Always them, i climate changes, are making hospitable environments that were not previously hospitable, favoring the adaptation of non-native species. And so our crops must always face more and more pests and insects previously absent in our climates. But there are those who respond to climate change with biological control instead of harmful chemicals.
The latest case was in Nardò, where at the end of May the 'Agricola 96' farm decided to try the biological way to protect crops, releasing Bioline AgroSciences 'Trichogramma' on tomato crops. With great satisfaction and promising results.
These insects, on the other hand, are not new to science: the Trichogramma brassicae, for example, is a well-known parasitoid of Lepidoptera eggs, used for many years in particular, but not only, for the corn borer control: the adult females, in fact, actively search for the Lepidoptera eggs inside which they lay their own, with a cycle that lasts from 10 to 20 days (from egg to adult) and which takes place entirely inside the host's egg , up to 10 generations per year.
Read also: Climate change favors the expansion of parasites
The release of useful insects allows to reduce the use of chemical products and equally solve the problems of farms - Michele Muci, technician of the Provincial Agricultural Consortium and promoter of the intervention, explains to Nardò News - [...] Our main objectives are those to help farmers defend their crops and guarantee consumers ever more genuine products e without chemical residues.
In particular, in this case the "friendly" insects help to fight the Tuta Absoluta, one of the most harmful moths for tomato crops. And the path taken seems the right one.
Against the #Tuta, in tomato all the tools add up. Introduce #Trichogramma cards, the parasitoid wasp…
Posted by Agrobío S.L. on Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Biological control in tomato? It is still the best tool to combat its main pests.+info:?…
Posted by Agrobío S.L. on Thursday, October 3, 2019
Even if it is too early to "sing victory" (we are still trying to repair the damage by still intervening on ecosystems), at least in this way we use autochthonous organisms limiting the use of synthetic products that have already amply demonstrated their ability to do damage.
Sources of reference: Nardò News / Agrobío SL / Facebook
Read also:
- Biological fight: how to attract ladybugs and beneficial insects to the vegetable garden
- Biological fight: how to save the citrus groves of Agrigento invaded by cochineal with… an insect
