Biological pest and disease control

How can plant-derived compounds help protect crops in an environmentally friendly way? Ensuring that crops are free of pests and disease is vital to protecting the food supply chain on global and local scales. But commonly used synthetic crop protectors – herbicides, fungicides, virucides, and insecticides – can pose significant environmental risks.

How might the natural world help protect crops in an environmentally friendly way? These three articles from International Journal of Microbiology and International Journal of Agronomy examine the potential of natural solutions including plant extracts, essential oils, and helpful or ‘friendly’ bacteria and fungi. You can read more agronomy summaries here.

The below summaries describe how plant-derived antimicrobials, antioxidants, and silver nanoparticles could be used for food preservation and crop protection, how understanding and harnessing endophyte colonization could improve disease resistance, and demonstrate that garlic and ginger essential oil extracts show promise in defending against tomato blight.