The Swedish market for biological plant protection is too small and needs national support to get access to existing products in other countries.
Researchers in Sweden have evaluated several biological plant protection products. They could show that the effect of the products varied – and that the harvest increased in many cases.
The use of biological plant protection increases in many countries and there are expectations that the chemical plant protection will be replaced with biological alternatives. The researchers wanted to increase accessibility for Swedish plant breeders. But they had a hard time even to get permission from the producers to include their products in the evaluation. The reason is that a small market as Sweden isn’t interesting for them.
The conclusion is that there is a need for national support to be able to provide new and environmental friendly plant protection solutions to the Swedish plant breeders.
And there is an obvious need for more alternatives. The chemical plant protection products is phased out of the EU. That means that the risk for resistance increases.