ugarcane, bananas and other economically important crops. Annually, fungal diseases destroy a third of all harvests and pose a dire threat to global food security.
To stop the spread of fungal diseases, farmers fumigate the soil with toxic chemicals that lay waste to the land, sparing not even the beneficial microbes teeming in the earth. Or they ply plants with fungicides. But fungicide use is effective only in the short run — until the pathogenic fungi evolve resistance against these synthetic chemicals.
Now, a new idea is taking root: Help plants stand their ground by giving them the tools to fight their own battles. A team led by Jason White, an environmental toxicologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, is fortifying crops with nutrients fashioned into nanosized packages, which boost plants’ innate immunity against pathogenic fungi more efficiently than traditional plant feeding.
To stop the spread of fungal diseases, farmers fumigate the soil with toxic chemicals that lay waste to the land, sparing not even the beneficial microbes teeming in the earth. Or they ply plants with fungicides. But fungicide use is effective only in the short run — until the pathogenic fungi evolve resistance against these synthetic chemicals.
Now, a new idea is taking root: Help plants stand their ground by giving them the tools to fight their own battles. A team led by Jason White, an environmental toxicologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, is fortifying crops with nutrients fashioned into nanosized packages, which boost plants’ innate immunity against pathogenic fungi more efficiently than traditional plant feeding.
