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Imprint
Targeted precision biocontrol and pollination enhancement in organic cropping systems (BICOPOLL)
Project
Project code: 2811OE016
Contract period: 01.12.2011
- 31.12.2014
Budget: 75,224 Euro
Purpose of research: Applied research
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. The BICOPOLL project aimed to change this and to improve the yield and quality of organic strawberry production significantly and thus farm economics. We used honeybees to (i) target deliver a biological control agent (fungus antagonist) to the flowers of the target crops (strawberries) to provide control of the problem diseases grey mold (Botrytis cinerea) and to (ii) improve the pollination of this organic horticultural crops. The use of bees has many environmental and economic benefits compared to spraying fungicide like in conventional farming systems. As bees, that actually forage in the target crop, is a key essential requirement for the entomovectoring technology, the main focus of this project was to determine, which factors can affect foraging ranges of honeybees and to examine how to steer the bees to the target crop (strawberry), even if the nectar or pollen rewards are less attractive compared to competitive other plants in the near surrounding. We hypothesized that small hives (number of individual bees per colony) forage closer to their hive and are thus more suitable for the bio-control of less nectar and pollen producing crops (like strawberries) than big hives, with higher numbers of individual bees per colony. Our investigations during 2012 – 2014 showed that on average smaller bee hives showed slightly higher proportions of Fragaria-pollen collecting bees than bigger bee hives based on both population estimates at the beginning and at the end of the investigation period. Thus our scientific hypothesis seems to be supported by our findings. However, before jumping to general conclusions or even recommendations for practical use it is indeed necessary to prove and verify these findings.
Section overview
Subjects
- Crop Protection
- Arboriculture
- Horticulture
- Beekeeping and health
Framework programme
Federal Organic Farming Scheme and other forms of sustainable agriculture (BÖLN)
