News & Events

Sandra Correia, director of the department, took part in the International Horticultural Congress, the world's largest scientific forum for horticultural sciences.

The 31st edition of the International Horticultural Congress (IHC 2022), organized by the International Society of Horticultural Sciences (International Society for Horticultural Science - ISHS), took place between September 14 and 20 in Angers, France.

The InPP was represented by the director of the Specific Crops Protection department, Sandra Correia, who was an organizer at the Symposium 4 entitled “In vitro technology and micropropagated plants”, The event took place on August 15th and 16th.

The Congress brings together international scientists, academics, students and industry to present and discuss the latest and most relevant advances in the scientific field of Plant Biotechnology, share experiences and knowledge and network.

Find out more at event page.

On August 3, 2022, InnovPlantProtect (InPP) was featured on RTP 1“s nationwide television program, ”Portugal em Direto".

RTP 1 broadcast a special report by journalist Teresa Marques, in which she revealed the solution our team has developed to inhibit the growth of the bacteria Erwinia amylovora which causes fire blight, a disease that affects rock pear and apple orchards in Portugal and has compromised the production of these crops.

“Due to climate change, the levels of infection [by Erwinia amylovora] are getting bigger every year and, as soon as you have a crop with fire blight, you have to cut down the apple or pear tree, and this has very serious consequences for farmers, because there are reductions of 40 to 60% in production,” he explains Cristina Azevedo, Director of the New Biopesticides of the InPP.

The work carried out by our researchers and their strong commitment have produced promising results, as shown in this report and in the statements made by Cristina Azevedo, Margarida Basaloco e João Carréu, InPP researchers.

For Pedro Fevereiro, InPP's executive director, “these new products are more sustainable and make it possible to protect crops from new pests and diseases that are appearing due to climate change” and the aim is for the various partners that make up CoLAB (companies, research institutes, state laboratories, municipalities and producers“ associations) ”to collaborate to develop products that can be taken to a level that can then be put on the market with the help of companies".

In this report you will learn more about the first provisional patent application submitted by the InPP team, on July 21, 2022.

The report is available at RTP Play, from minute 22:53.

On August 1st, researchers from InnovPlantProtect (InPP).., Cristina Azevedo e Rupesh Singh, traveled to the Mondego area, in Montemor-o-Velho, to collect samples of rice infected with the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, This is the cause of pyriculariosis, one of the most common diseases of this cereal all over the world and also in Portugal. The crops were harvested as part of the BlaSTOP project - Developing integrated solutions to combat rice pyriculariosis.

The InPP team, which has been working on the development of biopesticides against rice pyriculariosis, will now analyze the collected rice samples in the laboratory, with the aim of isolating and genetically characterizing the isolates (the cultures of microorganisms) currently present in the Mondego basin, in order to know the current genetic diversity of Magnaporthe oryzae in Portugal.

In the future, these collections will allow researchers to carry out a genetic analysis that compares the cultures of microorganisms from Magnaporthe oryzae currently present in this area of the Mondego and those isolated in the 1990s by the team from the INIAV in the national rice breeding program, in order to study the evolution of virulence, i.e. the degree or capacity of this fungus to cause the disease.

The fieldwork was carried out with the collaboration of António Jordão, a technician from Regional Directorate of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Center (DRAP Centro), and Danny Carvalheiro, a Master's student at the Higher Institute of Agronomy (ISA).

The BlaSTOP project aims to develop a sustainable and effective solution for controlling rice pyriculariosis caused by this fungus. The project has the support of COTArroz - Operational and Technological Center for Rice and Casa do Arroz, in the Tagus basin, and the Aparroz - Agrupamento de Produtores de Arroz do Vale do Sado Lda, in the Sado basin, where the team hopes to collect in the near future.