The US California Strawberry Commission last week launched a research partnership with the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) to look for alternatives to fumigant pesticide use on strawberries, reports www.agalert.com and California Farm Bureau Federation.
The three-year US$500,000 project will explore ways to grow strawberries in substances other than soil, which hosts nematodes and other pests and diseases that attack strawberry plants, they said.
'This project shows our commitment to encourage and support development of effective and environmentally-friendly ways to control pests,' DPR director Brian R Leahy is quoted as saying.
The widely-used fumigant methyl bromide is to be phased out in California by 2015 because of its detrimental effect on the ozone layer.
Another fumigant, methyl iodide, received registration for use in California in December 2010, but has been embroiled in a lawsuit and other challenges that have hampered its use, the report said.
This latest project will build on previous research to develop non-chemical alternatives to fumigants. With the infusion of funds from the state, research can now be carried out in farm-scale testing, it said.
The joint project aims to determine whether the use of strata such as peat, rice hulls and coir—the inner husk of coconut—can be used in strawberry production, and which combination works best. And also to find ways to bring costs down so the new method would be economically feasible for the state's strawberry growers.
