Commercialization and implementation of biocontrol.
Although the number of biocontrol products is increasing, these products still represent only about 1% of agricultural chemical sales. Yet these are important contributions because biocontrol agents offer disease management alternatives with different mechanisms of action than chemical pesticides. Trends in research include the increased use of biorational screening processes to identify microorganisms with potential for biocontrol, increased testing under semicommercial and commercial production conditions, increased emphasis on combining biocontrol strains with each other and with other control methods, integrating biocontrol into an overall system.
Fravel
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DR
Vegetable Laboratory, USDA-ARS, BARC-West, Beltsville, Maryland 20705, USA. fraveld@ba.ars.usda.gov
D000383:Agriculture / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D004463:Ecology / Q000191:economics; D010572:Pest Control, Biological / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000191:economics* / Q000382:microbiology*; D018581:Technology Transfer