•CITRIC-SA has been approved by AVI evaluators due to its great potential to eradicate this well-known pest.
•The aim of the research is focused on the holistic control of pseudococci.
•The treatments will enable applications to be more localized and in their different stages, reducing the plague.
Idai Nature, a company specialized in biocontrol and a member of the Rovensa group, has been selected to participate in the CITRIC-SA project, which was approved by the Valencian Agency of Innovation (AVI) in its recent call for 2021. A project that stands out due to its great potential, it aims to carry out the necessary research and development to obtain new phytosanitary treatments against several species of pseudococci pests, commonly known as “citrus mealybug”, in citrus crops (Delottococcus aberiae De Lotto and Planococcus citri Risso) and persimmon crops (Pseudococcus longispinus Targioni-Tozzetti and Pseudoccoccus viburni Signoret), controlling it at different seasons and in different developmental stages.
The importance of the CITRIC-SA project lies in the difficulty of controlling this type of pests, as there are currently no control methods that are completely efficient, leading to repetitive treatments over the years that produce abundant phytosanitary waste deposits in the environment where they are applied, and often develop resistance to insecticides.
Idai Nature participates in this initiative together with the Cooperativa Vinicola Llíria SCV which acts as coordinator, the AIMPLAS Technological Institute of Plastics, and the department of Agroforestry Ecosystems EAF – UPV of Universitat Politècnica De Valéncia.
The importance of having projects like this should be noted, especially after the pest that caused more than 100 million losses to the sector in the Valencian Community, according to data provided by AVA-ASAJA.
About Idai Nature
Idai Nature (www.idainature.com) is a Valencian biotech company founded in 2009 by Carlos Ledó specialized in the development and manufacture of microbial products and botanical extracts with biofungicidal, biobactericidal and/or bioinsecticide effect. Since 2018, it has been part of the Rovensa Business Group, leading its Agricultural Biocontrol unit. www.rovensa.com
