On December 19, 2021, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Jiangsu Trustchem Crop Protection Technology Co., Ltd. jointly constructed the “Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences Trustchem Biopesticide Industry Research Institute”. It is reported that Jiangsu Trustchem Crop Protection Technology Co., Ltd. has bought out part of the Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences biopesticide patents, in order to promote the results of “taking root”, the Institute will be in accordance with the “enterprise problem, the Institute to solve the problem,” the idea of carrying out the Biopesticide research and development and marketing.

Biopesticides refers to the use of beneficial organisms or their metabolites on agricultural pests to kill or inhibit the preparation. Since then, the research team of Liu Fengquan from the Plant Protection Institute of Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences has been mainly devoted to the research and development of two types of biocontrol bacteria: Bacillus cereus and Bacillus sphaericus.

Among them, Bacillus subtilis is a new type of biocontrol bacteria that has not been fully researched and developed yet. The team isolated the most promising antimicrobial active substance, heat-stabilized antifungal factor (HSAF), from enzyme-producing Bacillus subtilis. At the same time, two kinds of biocontrol products based on HSAF (gel and water) were developed and demonstrated in 20 counties in 12 provinces for more than 10,000 mu, and the preventive effect on fungal diseases such as pear rot and black star disease reached more than 75%, which is comparable to the preventive effect of chemical pesticides. At present, the relevant results have obtained 8 national invention patents, creating significant social and economic benefits.

For Bacillus, since 2014, Liu Fengquan's research team has screened a number of strains of Bacillus with application development prospects from different habitats, and Bacillus uplandensis ST15 is one of them, which has specific antagonistic effects on rice xanthomonas (rice leaf blight and rice bacterial streak). Rice leaf blight and rice bacterial streak disease in China mainly occurs in South China, Southwest China and Yangtze River Basin, and since 2015, the annual occurrence area is 6-10 million mu, which poses a serious threat to the safe and high-quality production of rice. Highland bacillus ST15 is highly targeted to these two rice bacterial diseases, according to the field production test, two consecutive applications, the preventive effect can reach 60%, which is comparable or similar to chemical pesticides, and can promote the growth of rice and improve the drought-tolerant ability of rice seedlings, which can replace or partially replace chemical pesticides, reduce the amount of chemical pesticides used, and improve the safety of food and the ecological environment, which has better economic and Social benefits. This year, the related achievement “a kind of antagonistic Bacillus subtilis ST15 against Xanthomonas campestris and its application” has already obtained the national patent, and has also declared the international PCT patent.

According to research estimates, the global market size of the biopesticide industry in the next few years will maintain a compound annual growth rate of 10%, to 2025, the output value will reach more than 8 billion U.S. dollars. Huang Jun, vice president of the Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that China's agriculture is currently moving towards high-quality direction, to the green low-carbon transformation, the public's growing concern for the quality and safety of agricultural products and environmental safety to the development of biopesticides has brought a rare opportunity and impetus. (News from Science and Technology Daily)

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