In organic farming, the control of various diseases relies heavily on copper-based fungicides. This is problematic because copper can accumulate in the soil if the annual input exceeds the annual uptake by plants, which can have a negative impact on soil fertility. Organic farmers are highly aware of this issue, they employ a wide range of preventive measures and often voluntarily refrain from using the permitted maximum copper levels. Nevertheless, completely eliminating copper would jeopardize yield security, as there are not enough effective alternatives available.
The goal of this project is to develop effective alternatives to copper for organic farming. We are pursuing various strategies, on the one hand, we are developing new alternatives from scratch ourselves; on the other hand, we are collaborating with partner institutes and companies to support them in their development efforts. We are investigating active ingredients of plant, mineral, and microbial (metabolites and living microorganisms) origin that can have either a direct (fungicidal) or indirect plant-strengthening (resistance induction) effect. Furthermore, we test new active ingredients or products from the laboratory to the field and combine them with preventive measures. For effective alternatives, we seek collaboration with companies to work toward registration as plant protection products and market launch.
Project Manager
