An organic crop protection system using bumblebees and a naturally occurring fungus can boost berry yields by a third, according to recent commercial trials.
Billed as a “low-waste commercial alternative to chemical pesticides”, the new technique has increased yields by over 30 per cent in recent commercial trials carried out across the US, Canada and Europe on strawberry, blueberry, blackberry and sunflower crops.
In addition, the crop protection system has improved fruit sweetness, size and overall plant health, according to Bee Vectoring Technology, the agri-tech startup that developed it.
The process has been in R&D in Canada for over a decade, and according to BVT it is harmlessto bees, animals and humans, using no water or harmful chemicals.
Commercially reared bumblebees walk through a specialist tray dispenserof organic inoculatingpowder before leaving their hive and droppingspores on each plant they visit while naturally foraging.
The powder is a combination of a lightadherence agent, which helps it cling to the bees’ fur and a naturallyoccurring fungus namedClonostachysroseawhich, when absorbed by a plant, enables it to effectively block damaging diseases such as botrytis in strawberries.
Commercial demonstrations with blueberries have shown comparable disease protection to sprayed chemicals, BVT said.
