Another interview with our consortium is available!
This time PNO Consultants chatted with Marie-Cécile Dufour, engineer at INRAE in charge of the management of the “BC2Grape” platform created within the framework of the Mixed Technological Unit SEVEN in Bordeaux.
The discussion highlighted on the activities the research institute has performed and will performed in the frame of the BIOBESTicide project, focusing on its vision on vineyard for the next 10 years and the hopes for this BBI project.
I am an engineer at INRAE in charge of the management of the “BC2Grape” platform created within the framework of the Mixed Technological Unit SEVEN in Bordeaux (partnership between INRAE with UMR SAVE, UMR EGFV and UE viticole de Bordeaux, Bordeaux Sciences Agro and the IFV). The objective of this platform is to support the industry in the development of biocontrol solutions through research and innovation and to promote collaborative projects with the private sector, to promote public / private partnerships in the favorable scientific environment from the Bordeaux Vine and Wine Institute (ISVV). BC2GRAPE develops protocols and methodologies adapted to evaluate new bio-control and plant protection products and to propose optimal use strategies for the vineyard. Located in Bordeaux, it focuses on the three main aerial diseases of the vine which are powdery mildew (Erysiphe necator), downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola) and gray rot (Botrytis cinerea) but is also able to respond to requests on diseases responsible for wasting (Eutypa lata, Esca) or secondary airborne diseases such as black rot (Guignardia bidwellii). It is made up of instrumented devices deployed at different spatial scales (from the laboratory to the vineyard), led by an experienced and complementary team bringing together the forces of IFV and INRAE, mainly relying on UMR SAVE and the Vinopôle Bordeaux Aquitaine staff
BIOVITIS and SAVE have been collaborating since 2010 on the biocontrol of grapevine wood diseases using Pythium oligandrum through various projects:
This collaboration was fruitful in terms of scientific publication but also in terms of promotion since this work resulted in the filing of a registration dossier for a microbial product for the biocontrol of wood diseases by BIOVITIS.
INRAE is a research institute and its mission in the BBI project is to evaluate (1) the effectiveness of the biopesticide as a biocontrol product and (2) the strategie of use in the vineyard in order to give society information on the recommendation for the approval dossier. In the BIOBESTicide value chain, we are not biomass suppliers, micro-organism growers, formulators of agro products or biopesticides producers. We are more likely end-users, since we have to use the biopesticide solution that will be approved.
To guarantee the sustainability of the viticultural agrosystem, it will be necessary to combine a set of levers and thus build an integrated vision of agroecology in the vineyard to meet the major challenges of reducing the use of phytosanitary products and managing the decline of the vineyard and epidemiological surveillance of the vineyard by:
– using the resistance capacities of plants, (take advantage of ontogenic resistance by modifying the architecture of plants, sustainably manage varietal resistance or stimulate plant immunity)
– using biological regulation and biocontrol via macroorganisms and auxiliary microorganisms.
– elucidating the process of vine dieback at the heart of plant / microorganism / cultural practices / abiotic environment interactions.
Since the start of the project (May 2020), we have been fortunate to be able to carry out the tasks of WP4 as planned, despite some obstacles sown along the way (long sick leave, health crisis and confinements). 2022 promises to be auspicious and will provide the first efficacy data for the biopesticide without any problem.