Descripción del proyecto
Protección de cultivos imitando los cristales de cera naturales
Los cristales de cera son de pequeño tamaño y se encuentran en las cutículas de algunas plantas, sobre todo las superhidrófobas, como el loto y el brócoli. Inspirándose en estas plantas, el equipo del proyecto SafeWax, financiado con fondos europeos, utilizará fórmulas bioderivadas a base de ácidos grasos no tóxicos para crear un revestimiento protector con propiedades antiadherentes, autolimpiantes y antimicóticas. Esta innovadora tecnología pretende reducir el uso excesivo y abusivo de fungicidas químicos, que tienen consecuencias devastadoras para el medio ambiente y la economía mundial. El recubrimiento SafeWax se probará inicialmente en la vid, que es susceptible a las micosis. Además de proteger los cultivos de las micosis, el recubrimiento biodegradable evitará daños causados por el sol y facilitará la recogida del agua de la condensación del rocío, mitigando así los efectos del cambio climático.
Objetivo
According to the FAO, plant diseases cost the global economy around 210€ billion per year, and fungal pathogens destroy at least a third of all food crops annually. Commercial agriculture relies on chemical fungicides for crop protection owing to their easy application and low cost; however, their overuse and misuse have devastating implications for all living systems and the entire ecosystem. Thus, establishing sustainable crop protection strategies is essential for global economic development, environmental protection, and food security.
Inspired by superhydrophobic plants, such as lotus and broccoli which exhibit wax crystals on their cuticles, we propose a generic sustainable strategy for passive crop protection against fungal pathogens. Our biomimetic technology, termed SafeWax, relies on bio-derived non-toxic fatty acid-based sprayable formulations which self-assemble into a multifaceted protective coating with anti-adhesive, self-cleaning and antifungal properties. When applied on sensitive crops, which do not naturally exhibit wax crystals, SafeWax will synthetically render their foliage to passively resist pathogens. SafeWax concepts will initially be demonstrated on grapevine, as a relevant model crop of high importance to Europe’s economy, environment and culture, which is highly susceptible to fungal diseases and is the most-frequently treated crop. SafeWax will then be expanded to other sensitive commodity crops. The biodegradable SafeWax coating will not only protect crops from fungal infections but will also be tuned to provide UV radiation filtering, prevent sun damage, as well as facilitate water collection from dew condensation, mitigating inevitable effects of climate change.
SafeWax will revolutionize the global fungicides market (valued > 20 billion €), starting from the biofungicide market with a value of 3,2 billion € by 2025.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
- HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC) Main Programme
Convocatoria de propuestas
HORIZON-EIC-2022-PATHFINDEROPEN-01
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaRégimen de financiación
HORIZON-EIC - HORIZON EIC GrantsCoordinador
32000 Haifa
Israel