Imagine tiny invisible worms in the soil that act like parasites, eating the roots of your vegetables and destroying harvests. Because the planet is getting warmer, these pests are moving into new areas and becoming harder to kill. This work creates a toolkit to identify these pests quickly and finds natural ways to stop them without using toxic chemicals.
Global warming and genetic selection are making soil nematodes more virulent, while the ban on toxic nematicides leaves farmers without effective tools to protect potato and tomato crops.
A four-step tropical RKN detection toolkit (triage, amplification, sequencing) and a set of non-GMO control strategies including crop rotations and host resistance.
If you are a seed breeder dealing with crop failure due to pest evolution — this project developed tailored host plant resistances that protect potato and tomato yields. This allows you to sell seeds that are naturally resistant to the top 2 most impactful soil pests.
If you are a consultant dealing with the phase-out of chemical nematicides — this project developed optimized crop rotation schemes and cover crop strategies. You can provide farmers with science-based plans to maintain soil productivity without harmful agrochemicals.
If you are a lab dealing with the difficulty of identifying tropical root-knot nematodes by eye — this project developed a four-step detection toolkit involving triage and sequencing. This ensures correct identification of invasive species that look identical under a microscope.
Based on available project data, specific pricing or implementation costs for the tools are not provided.
The project uses a multi-actor approach and co-creation with the conventional and organic sectors to ensure the tools are adoptable for wide-scale farming.
Based on available project data, there is no specific information regarding patents or licensing agreements.
The project responds to EU Commission implementing regulation 2021/2285 and the phasing out of environmentally harmful nematicides.
The project is active from 2024-01-01 to 2027-12-31.
The consortium is heavily weighted toward research and academia, with 14 university and research entities out of 19 partners. However, it maintains a practical edge with 2 industrial partners and 3 SMEs, ensuring that the 11% industry ratio provides a bridge from lab results to field application across 9 countries.
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