Use of an Innovative Material for Biotech Applications in Agriculture

Pesticide treatments are largely used in agriculture in the control of a wide range of biotic stresses. Huge quantity of chemicals is employed in agriculture. Number and interval of treatments depend on plant growth, washout, risk of infection, disease pressure, quality of distribution on leaves, and scheduled application. This cause concern about environment and human health, and an economic impact on farmers activity. Sustainable methods to reduce impact of chemicals pollution and residues on soil and plant should be explored not only with a complete elimination of chemicals but also reducing the amount and number of chemical applications per year, by using new biotech materials that the research world is proposing. Formulation and adjuvants could play an important role in increasing bioavailability and regulate frequency of applications. The addition of an appropriate adjuvant to a foliar fungicide can significantly improve coverage, absorption, efficacy and can reduce the total amount applied in a season. Among different chemicals, polysaccharides, particularly, galactomannans are used in edible films or coatings for food make them very interesting for any potential use in agriculture. The results of use of a new natural polysaccharide based on locust bean gums is presented and, according to interesting results of our trials, it is proposed for different biotech application, ranging from reduction of chemical treatments to seed coating and application on plant with beneficial microorganisms. In particular, the results of experimental use of galactomannan adjuvant as in cupric fungicide applications and formulant for beneficial microorganisms are reported. Data demonstrated that: i) the use of this natural adjuvant increase persistence on leaves of copper fungicides reducing the amount of copper need to control Plasmopara viticola on grape and ii) increase the efficacy and activity of the beneficial microorganisms such as Trichoderma spp. and Clonostachys rosea as seed coating on wheat.