Project stakeholders
[Row of bee treat hives]
The BICOPOLL project addressses stakeholders from all countries. The project is especially relevant to the following target groups:
Organic berry growers
Beekeepers
Plant protection scientists
Advisory services
Biocontrol manufacturers
Policy makers.
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High yields of healthy strawberries requires
effective biocontrol and pollinators
The BICOPOLL project aims
The researchers behind this BICOPOLL project will improve the quality and marketable yield of strawberry crops by developing simple, effective, targeted biological control of the most important berry disease - the grey mould - and by improving crop pollination by bees.
[Berry-grower demonstration]
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Grey mold - the most important berry disease
Grey mould destroys 10-20 percent of conventional strawberry crop despite heavy spraying of fungicides - organic growers have no means of protection, and can lose up to 100 percent of the crop. Bees can be used to improve crop pollination, and to disseminate effective biocontrol organisms onto it, everywhere in Europe, and elsewhere.
Strawberry has a great market potential
Strawberry is an extremely important crop in Europe, with a very good market potential. It suffers heavily from the grey mould disease, against which organic growers have no means of protection. Biological control of the disease can be achieved by bees, which are used to carry effective - already existing - biological control agents directly onto strawberry flowers. | Spraying the biocontrol agents will not protect the berries effectively, because it does not provide continuous protection (unlike bees, which visit the flowers several times every day).
Expected benefits of the project
- Improved yield quantity and stability: 25% to 100% increases have been obtained as the combined effect of disease biocontrol and improved pollination
- Improved quality of products: heavier, more full berries as a result of improved pollination
- Improved shelf-life for products
- Improved farm economy: higher yield and earlier ripening as a result from the dual function of effective biocontrol of the disease and more complete pollination
- Improved ecological and economic sustainability of organic berry and fruit production.
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Main project activities
This project partners of BICOPOLL will do gap-filling research and workshops on:
Grey mould and its biocontrol agents
Honeybees, bumble bees, and other bees and their behavior, management, and utilization
Safety of the technique to bees, growers, and consumers.
We will demonstrate strawberry fields in each partner country where growers, other scientists, advisors etc. are welcome to visit. furthermore, we will present the project results at all levels of dissemination, including this web page. finally, we will produce guidance leaflets and a handbook.
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Main outcomes at this stage?
- Pan-European field trials have consistently
shown, using strawberry as a case study, that
bee-disseminated biocontrol of the grey mould
provides equal or better crop protection than
chemical fungicides.
- In organic strawberry, marketable yields significantly
increase, often by over 50 %.
- Improved pollination accounts for about half
of the yield increases.
- Honey bees, bumble bees, and solitary bees
can all be used for vectoring beneficial biocontrol
microbes
- Efficacy and impact of the entomovectoring
technique can be improved by management
of hives (size, location, and properties),
vegetation management, and optimization of
dispensers and properties of the microbial
preparate.
- No negative outcomes on products (berries,
bee-products) have been detected, nor on
humans or non-target organisms; properties of
the carrier material and its particle size need
to be optimized to ensure harmlessness to the
bees themselves.
- The concept has proven to be effective on
a wide range of crops, such as strawberries,
raspberries, pears, apples, blueberries, cherries,
and even grapewine.
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[Bee hive at field]
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[Honey bee on strawberry]
BICOPOLL
Targeted biocontrol and pollination enhancement
7 partners, 7 countries
Coordinator
Professor Heikki Hokkanen, University of Helsinki, Department of Agricultural Sciences, Finland.
Partners
Dr. Otto Boecking, Lower Saxony State Institute for Consumer Protection and Food Safety, Germany
Professor Marika Mänd, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Estonia
Professor Guy Smagghe, Ghent University, Belgium
Dr. Andrej Cokl, National Institute of Biology, Slovenia
Research Leader, PhD Bettina Maccagnani, Agricultural and Environment Center Association, Italy
Professor Cafer Eken, Erzincan Horticultural Research Institute and Ardahan University, Turkey
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