About
About BioCrop
Crop production is dependent on manufactured fertilisers and pesticides/fungicides. Biocrop will explore the possibility of utilising biobased products and innovations as viable alternatives while addressing the sustainability and environmental impacts of these, such as GHG emissions. Biocrop aims t | Read on ...
Endophytes for control of disease in cereals
Fungal endophytes are microorganisms that populate plant tissues such as leaves and roots without causing disease symptoms. They have been shown be beneficial to crop plant health by improving nutrient use efficiency and disease resistance. We previously isolated hundreds of fungal strains from a si | Read on ...
Discovering and developing fungal and algal based derived biopesticides
Small, secreted peptides from fungi and cell components of algae have been shown to have antimicrobial activity against crop pathogens. This task will isolate, characterize and test new as well as previously discovered compounds from fungi and algae for bioactivity against known pathogens of barley | Read on ...
Targeting endophytes for control of Ramularia Leaf Spot and Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus of Irish cereals
Ramularia leaf spot (RLS) and Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus represent serious threats to the viability of Irish cereal production systems, especially barley. To-date control has been entirely dependent on the application of fungicides (in the case of RLS) and insecticides (in the case of BYDV which is t | Read on ...
Determine the potential of biobased fertilisers
Crop production is currently dependent on chemical fertilisers as the main source of plant nutrition. These are energy- intensive to produce and the majority of phosphate (90%) and nitrogen fertilisers (45%) in the EU are imported. Therefore, it is key to study if biobased fertilisers can replace or | Read on ...
Life cycle assessment of Biobased fertilisers and pesticides
The objective of this task is to conduct a comprehensive life cycle analysis of biobased fertilisers and pesticides and compare them to the conventional fossil-based products. Life Cycle Assessment involves analysis of all environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or environmenta | Read on ...
Farm Level Bio-Economic Modelling
This task will develop a bio-economic model of the Irish crop sector at farm level, whereby the economics of the alternative agronomic practises associated with biofertiliser and biostimulant use on barley crops can be evaluated. | Read on ...