Accueil » ASEEDS: protecting wheat and maize crops sustainably
ASEEDS: protecting wheat and maize crops sustainably
11 Mar 19
ASEEDS: protecting wheat and maize crops sustainably
Writtern by contributeur
An ambitious collaborative project
Aseeds for alternative seeds aims to find natural products to protect cereals against seed borne diseases but also repellents against birds or biostimulants to maintain field emergence when early sowing practices are carried out to escape drought at flowering. Over the past five years, 12 partners, industrials and public institutes (Tab.1) have collaborated with the shared goal of helping cereal farmers to meet the double challenge of pesticide reductions and climate change.
The project was funded by a unique national fund (FUI) and by the region Pays de la Loire. It was supported by three competitive clusters,two of which have just merged to become the Global Plant Cluster for the 2019-2022 period.
Private and public partners (depatmentnumber) from the French consortium ASEEDS 2012-2018
Limagrain Europe
Arvalis - Institut du Végétal
Bayer Cropscience France
FNAMS
Agrauxine – Lesaffre Plant Care
GEVES
Lallemand Plant Care
UMR INRA-UCA 1095 GDEC
Sofrapar
UMR CNRS-UL 5557 EM
Terrena Innovation
UMR Sorbonne Université 7622 LBD
Main results
90 biological solutions (natural extracts or micro-organisms) have been screened in lab for protecting cereals against seed borne disease, repelling crows or stimulating germination and seedling growth in early sowing conditions (wet and cold).
Two biocontrol and one repulsive solution have been validated by the project in both controlled and field conditions, and a second repulsive agent has been selected in controlled conditions. The four solutions now have to be processed for seed treatment. Six candidates for maizebiostimulationunder cold and wetsowing conditions have been alsoidentified in controlled conditions. Theystillneed to bevalidated in field.
GEVES's contribution
The phytopathology labprovided 4 fungi among the 6 seed borne diseasevectorsuseful for the project (Fusarium graminearum, Fusarium culmorum, Microdochium nivale, Pythiumsp., Stagonosporanodorum et Fusarium verticillioïdes) and carried out 5 pathotests (3 on wheat and 2 on maize). One of these validated the two last solutions for biocontrolefficacy (T. caries). The lab has analysedseedhealthfrom all materialprovidedduring the project (Fig.1) and had to artificiallycontaminatecertain seed lots when the level of naturalseed borne diseasewastoolow.
Figure 1 : seedhealth analyses for a maizesample (a) and a wheatsamplewithoutseeddisinfection (b)or withseeddisinfection (c)
The germination laboratory has developed a cold test for maize which allowed to follow shoot growth (seedling emergence rate) and root system in the growing medium using image analysis (Fig.2). It took two years to standardise testing conditions and the lab hosted two students during their two-year advanced technician’s degree.
Figure 2 :Illustrations of the measurements carried out for the germination test of maize seeds in binding conditions before the final evaluation of seedling growth in accordance with ISTA standards.
The root development followed by image analysis could replace time consuming and destructive biomass measurements to screen 30 candidates for biostimulation on several seedlots produced in 2013 and 2016 from five maize cultivars having different flowering precocity. A promising relationship was obtained between the two criteria on two cultivars with different root systems (Fig.3).
Figure 3 : Linearcorrelationbetween root dveloppement index measured by image analysis and root biomass on the sameseedlingsobtainedwithdifferentsseed lots or test conditions for twomaize cultivars V11 and V19.
This active public-private partnership has laid the foundations for screening new solutions for sustainable crop protection. The forthcoming trade of seed lots treated with anti-fungi and crow repellentsolutions will be a concrete result for cereal farmers.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.