Beets without neonicotinoids?

Banned since 2018 but reintroduced in 2020 in the sugar industry, neonicotinoids should disappear in 2024. These insecticides, sometimes nicknamed "bee killers", are used to protect sugar beets from aphids vectors of jaundice, a disease that disrupts the plant growth.

In the spring of 2021, a national research and innovation plan (PNRI) of 20 million euros, including more than seven in state credits, was launched to find an alternative to neonicotinoids.

In Laon, the Technical Beet Institute is studying several avenues: "We are testing the resistance to jaundice of 124 varieties of beets" and "new phytosanitary products", explains Ghislain Malatesta, manager at the ITB.

Flowers or cereals called "companions" are also grown near the beets, in order to measure their repellent effects and their ability to attract green aphid predators.

"Oats and vetch" "rather worked", says Martin Gosse de Gorre, who is experimenting with ITB solutions in Pas-de-Calais.

However, the Institute noted "13% loss" on its plot without neonicotinoids because "beets suffer from competition" from companion plants, explains Mr. Malatesta.

In the Aisne, Hubert Compère has planted "flower strips" to welcome "aphid killer" insects.

Still too "expensive" and "insufficient", according to the farmer.

For its part, the National Research Institute for Agriculture and the Environment (Inrae) is working on a “premunition method, a bit like vaccination”, indicates Véronique Brault, director of research in the Haut-Rhin: it it involves using "low virulence variants" of jaundice to stimulate the beet's defences.

Vine: varietal selection

In Colmar, Inrae has been looking for 20 years for an effective defense against mildew and powdery mildew, parasitic fungi that wreak havoc in the vines.

A major challenge for France, the world's third largest wine producer and leading exporter in value.

In 2000, the institute (then INRA) launched the RESDUR program to develop a range of varieties resistant to these two diseases which require most phytosanitary treatments in viticulture.

"We found varieties of wild vines in Asia and North America that promised to resist well. We then carried out more than sixty types of crosses and tested more than 20,000 samples", explains Didier Merdinoglu, who is leading the RESDUR project.

The researchers selected "two resistance genes" for each of the fungi, to "reduce the risk of circumvention" of the pests.

Twenty new varieties of vines have been created and those with the best oenological qualities selected, in collaboration with the Julius Kuhn Institute in Germany.

In 2018, four new varieties were added to the French catalogue: Artaban, Floreal, Vidoc and Voltis.

"For these four varieties, we have reduced the phytosanitary treatments by 90%", rejoices Mr. Merdinoglu, and large wine-growing areas, such as Bordeaux or Champagne have started to test these vines.

© 2022 AFP