Damages to crops just from arthropod pests, such as aphids, spider mites, whiteflies, mealybugs, corn earworms, and tomato hornworms, result in hundreds of billions of dollars of losses yearly. While you may think this only affects the agricultural industry, it has knock-on effects on almost every community worldwide, as well as global food security.
Arthropod pests in a non-agricultural setting, for example, pests that affect livestock, can cause equal damage by impairing food stocks and spreading diseases that affect both humans and other animals. However, researchers believe that fungi pest control could be the answer.
How can entomopathogenic fungi help?
Entomopathogenic Fungi, or EPF, are beneficial fungi that can provide multiple services in pest management. Some even have a mutually beneficial relationship with plants, boosting their growth and crop yield.
For these fungi to be most effective, it is critical to enable their mass production. Currently, one of the most robust and versatile technologies is Submerged Liquid Fermentation. Although this is one of the most promising technologies, there is still a lot of research that needs to be done to fine-tune the development of control agents against pests and other disease vectors.
A new study predicts a bright future for submerged liquid fermentation technology to supplement or even replace traditional solid substrate fermentation.
What is liquid submerged fermentation?
Liquid Submerged Fermentation, or SLF, is an industrial process where microorganisms, in this case fungi, are grown in a liquid medium in a stirred tank reactor. It is known for allowing precise control of both nutritional and environmental factors and providing a scalable, robust, and cost-effective platform for producing various different species and forms of fungi.
What’s next for research?
The next step in researching SLF as a process for cultivating Entomopathogenic fungi is to fill the current knowledge and technical gaps that exist.
Currently, the main issue is the variation between different species and even strains of specific fungi, and each will need to be researched separately to determine the optimum factors for its development.
There also needs to be a push to research ways to extend the shelf-life of these fungi or, alternatively, find a way to lower the cost of entry into SLF, so fungi can be cultivated on-site at smaller farms, reducing the need for packaging and transport.
