SLU Centre for Biological Control, CBC, has now published the annual popular science overview of the activities during 2019.
SLU Centre for Biological Control aim is to develop new knowledge concerning the use of living organisms to control pests and diseases.
In this report we present a popular science overview of CBC's activities in 2019.
– Another exciting year with SLU Centre for Biological Control has passed and a new equally exciting one has just begun. In times when the chemical pesticide toolbox in crop protection is shrinking and the sustainability of our current agricultural production is being questioned the role of biological control is bound to increase. Within SLU Centre for Biological Control we are well placed to have a key role in this transition, since our research aims to both understand when, where and how we can best support natural enemies and antagonists of pests, and when, where and how further biological control agents can be applied in a safe and effective way, says the Director Mattias Jonsson.
Biological control is a method of restricting effects of harmful animals, pathogens and plants using other useful organisms, e.g. microorganisms, insects and plants that inhibit the harmful organisms. The method takes advantage of basic ecological interactions between organisms, such as predation, parasitism, pathogenicity and competition. Today, biological control is used primarily for controlling pests in crop cultivation.
mattias.jonsson@slu.se, 018 - 67 2450