Project

Virtigation (cofin)

Tomato and Cucurbitaceae worldwide suffer from viral diseases that reduce yield and crop value and increase production costs and environmental impact due to the use of pesticides against virus-spreading insects. The EU project VIRTIGATION, which started in June 2021, is developing knowledge about plant-virus-vector interactions, IPM solutions for disease control, finding and characterizing new virus and vector resistances and developing adequate early-warning systems to identify dangerous viral diseases at the earliest possible stage.

The VIRTIGATION project aims at short-, medium and long-term solutions that will lead to a more sustainable production of vegetables in Europe. Tot his end a 'multi-actor approach' will be employed with the aim of having a lasting impact on the entire value chain. The VIRIGATION consortium ensures that innovative and new developments meet the real needs of the vegetable sector. For this, the wishes of farmers, extension services, researchers, the breeding industry, the crop protection industry and consumers are brought together.

Tomato and Cucurbits (cucumber, melon, etc.) are among the most widely produced vegetable crops in the world. These crops are affected worldwide by viral diseases such as begomoviruses and tobamoviruses, which reduce the yield and the value of the crops, increase production costs, and increase the environmental burden due to the use of pesticides to control the insects that spread those viruses. These are all things that we want to reduce through this project. Central to this is the development of knowledge about plant-virus-vector interactions, the development of IPM solutions for disease control, the finding and characterization of new virus and vector resistances and the development of adequate early-warning systems to stage to identify potentially dangerous viral diseases.

The VIRIGATION consortium consists of 25 universities, research organisations, companies and industry associations. Collaboration and knowledge exchange are central.

Publicaties