Organic Pesticides- a boon or a bane?

Shrayana Ghosh, Amity University Kolkata

To ensure a stable food supply, it is necessary to protect crops against pests and diseases. Roughly 95% of food comes from organic cultivation, using chemical pesticides to preserve the quality of the crops. But organic pesticides are increasingly being pursued as an option as well. Some organic pesticides contain live spores that are capable of suppressing other pathogens. Studies carried out at Göttingen University have now discovered that extreme rot in the cob of maize can be caused by one Trichoderma fungus.

The findings have been published in Frontiers in Agronomy journal. In Southern Germany first in 2018, the huge outbreak of an unknown maize Trichoderma species in Europe. Grey-green spore layers are formed between the leaves forming the cobs’ husks on the grains of maize in affected plants. Moreover, the infested grains prematurely germinated. The scientists brought maize plants to touch Trichoderma through inoculation in the greenhouse for this research. They were then able to deduce that the dry basis content of the maize cobs is greatly decreased. Annette Pfordt, a Ph.D. student at the Department of Crop Sciences of the University of Göttingen. Results found by her showed that some of these strains were highly aggressive with a cob infestation of 95% to 100%. These spores could be allocated to the relatively new species Trichoderma afroharzianum when molecular analyses was implemented. Within this specific species of fungus, previously unknown plant-pathogenic strains seem to have advanced which are now accountable for this newly discovered disease which is affecting maize.

According to Pfordt, the species that is used in the making the organic plant production fertilizers is a very close relative, namely Trichoderma harzianum. Even though the strains were not as aggressive in the study, but led to slight infestation on the ob in the inoculation experiment.

 “Even though the experiments carry out on Trichoderma strains in organic plant production are much different from the aggressive forms found recently, it is quite clear that the thorough investigation of using living microorganisms in the plant protection is required,” added Professor Andreas von Tiedemann who is the head of the Department of Plant Pathology and Protection at the University of Göttingen.

“Trichoderma agents” may be used for the cultivation of vegetables, for example, to manage diseases such as Botrytis or Fusarium and reduce rotting pathogens in crop products. Different organic goods are available on the market containing Trichoderma. They are used in organic agriculture almost exclusively. The atopic species of Trichoderma are present in the soil, the plant roots, the rotting plants and wood throughout the world. They behave like substrate decomponents and other micro-organisms antagonists. For the first time, they are identified as plant pathogens.

Also read: You could be at greater COVID risk if you have Neanderthal genes

Sources

1. https://phys.org/news/2020-10-products-crops.html
2. https://www.researchgate.net/post/Are_there_any_studies_concerning_negative_effect_of_Trichoderma_harzianum_on_plant_growth

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