Insects orient themselves and adapt their behaviour based on the odours they perceive. So it should be possible to manipulate them by altering the olfactory landscape that surrounds them - think a field, and think of the pests that might besiege it. No wonder the idea has caught on in agriculture. Sugar beet growers in France are currently experimenting with a fragrance that is meant to repel aphids, vectors of the feared virus yellows disease, which can cost them up to half their crop. The disease causes yellowing in the sugar beet leaves, which in turn hampers photosynthesis and can severely reduce sugar storage in the roots. Since the European Union banned the use of neonicotinoids, the insecticide of choice in sugar beet cultivation up until now, fragrances are one promising solution to controlling aphids and the virus they carry. A perfume against pests? A viable alternative to pesticides!
For this video, I visited one of the leading laboratories for olfactory landscapes in agriculture: Agriodor in Rennes, Brittany. The start-up is a spin-off from the INRAE labs in Versailles and was co-founded by Estonian scientist Ené Leppik. She took me on a tour around her lab and showed me the state-of-the art techniques that allow fragrances to be harnessed for plant protection.
What techniques is Agriodor using to develop their innovative biocontrol solutions? How do they test their fragrances and make sure they’re effective on the targeted species, but have no negative impact on biodiversity, for example? My enquiry took me from the lab right out into the field, to a farm in the French department of Sarthe, where farmer Julien Pivard is test running a type of perfumed granule from Agriodor.
This video was co-produced by INRAE, France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment.
Brittany and the department of Sarthe are the tenth stop on my “Field Trip”, my study tour of agricultural research across Europe.
The European Research Alliance “Towards a Chemical Pesticide-Free Agriculture” was launched by INRAE, together with its German partners from JKI and the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF). Under ERA’s umbrella, 35 research organisations from 20 European countries are currently working closely together with a view to pooling their strengths and facilitating the exchange of knowledge and expertise in their respective fields. One of the alliance’s key objectives is to provide scientific support for an ambitious target set by the European Commission: cutting Europe’s use of pesticides in half by 2030.
ERA’s website and its 35 members:
www.era-pesticidefree.eu/Abou...
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List of speakers in this video (in order of appearance):
- Ené Leppik: Biologist, Specialist in insect-plant interactions, formerly INRAE, President and co-founder of Agriodor
- Fabienne Dupuy: Specialist in sensory neuroethology, Head of R&D Platform, Agriodor
- Tarek Dardouri: Specialist in insect chemical ecology, Agriodor
- Julien Pivard: Cereal and sugar beet farmer in the French department of Sarthe
- Ambroise Garnier: Deployment Manager, Agriodor
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Do insects have brains?
In order to explain the meaning of “sensory neuroethology” in as few and simple words as possible, I talk about the “insect brain” at one point in this video. However, insects do not have brains in the true sense of the word. Instead, entomologists speak of a “central nervous system”. I’ve taken the liberty of shortening my explanation in this way to make it more accessible to the non-specialist and less scientifically minded among you ;-)
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The impact of my travels:
I’m always aiming to limit my carbon footprint. For this video, the impact created by my travels (source: Ademe/monimpacttransport.fr) was 11.1 kg CO2e for an itinerary of 627 km by train and 117 km by car, which is 142.9 kg CO2e less than if I’d chosen to travel by car exclusively and 288.9 kg CO2e less than if I’d gone by plane.
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A series by Pierre Girard, co-produced with INRAE
Writing:
Pierre Girard
Camera and editing:
Patryk Puchalski
Graphic design:
Otto Stobbe
Translation and subtitles:
Geoffrey Schöning
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#FieldTrip_EU
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