CONTROL BIOLÒGIC

Sectors related to plant health in general and vegetable production in particular. All sectors interested in improving the sustainability of plant production systems.

Project objective

To detect and characterise biological control organisms of Meloidogyne spp. present in Spain, assess their compatibility with resistant cultivars, and evaluate the use of plant extracts in integrated nematode management programmes in horticultural crops.

• Detect, identify, characterise and select native biological control organisms of Meloidogyne spp., while determining the influence of soil physicochemical properties on their presence and abundance.
• Determine the efficacy and compatibility of the selected biological control organisms with plant resistance and plant extracts.
• Determine the epidemiological development of Meloidogyne in low-environmental-impact production systems that include the most common crop rotations in Andalusia: solanaceous crops–cucurbits.

Project description

Biological control is used successfully to manage above-ground plant pests, and there are also successful examples of biological control of above-ground and soilborne pathogens. However, little information is available on the use of biological control to manage Meloidogyne populations, despite this being the main genus of plant-parasitic nematodes limiting crop production worldwide. Biological control organisms are compatible with all agricultural production systems: conventional, organic and integrated. Their inclusion in integrated management programmes should represent a major step forward in nematode control in sustainable, low-environmental-impact production systems.

The studies are being conducted in Catalonia and Andalusia (north-eastern and southern Spain), selected as representative horticultural production areas with different agroclimatic conditions and farm management practices.

Project funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation.
Period: January 2010 – March 2011