The BIOCOMES project (‘New biological products for sustainable farming and forestry’) comprises 13 industrial partners and 14 research institutes and universities from 14 countries seeking to offer 11 new biological control products for arable, vegetable and fruit tree crops, plus new solutions for forestry and two new production technologies.

July's newsletter includes input from Samuel Stüssi, from Switzerland's Andermatt, explaining the new thinking which must accompany the introduction of IPM methods. He tells the newsletter: “In traditional, synthetic pest management, farmers and product specialists are used to thinking in efficacy rates of 95% or more. In biological products, however, efficacies of around 50% are not uncommon. So, when growers or producers switch from synthetic to biological, it often takes a mind shift to get a realistic perspective on pest management. The gap may be filled with improved management.”

He goes on to explain: “One of the ways to fill the gap in efficacy of the different products is to improve the scouting of potential problems. If you find, for example, spider mites in tomatoes, it’s all a matter of acting early enough. Larger growers are maybe used to acting relatively late, and rely on larger quantities of control agents. These quantities may become too expensive when you work with biological products. Therefore, you need to act sooner, so smaller quantities can still do the job. Find the hot spots before they become big.”

Elsewhere in the newsletter, BIOCOMES reports that it will present the results of its four-year research programme at October’s Annual Biocontrol Industry Meeting in Basel, Switzerland. BIOCOMES coordinator Jürgen Köhl, from Wageningen UR in the Netherlands, and project partners will present and discuss the project’s deliverables in a plenary session on 24 October.

Earlier in the month, Jürgen will be presenting a talk on ‘The present and future of biofungicides based on microbial biocontrol agents’ as part of Future IPM 3.0 Towards a sustainable agriculture, which runs from October 15 to 20 in Riva del Garda, Italy (with the first day dedicated to the IOBC-WPRS general assembly).

BIOCOMES also reports on improvements made to its Aphid Identification Guide, a slide share presentation concerning fungal diseases caused by the Fusarium genus and papers published by project members.

For more information:

• Visit the BIOCOMES website