On National Sustainability Day, the project “ValorCannBio - Valorization of medicinal cannabis by-products as a biopesticide for olive groves” was announced, led by InnovPlantProtect (InPP) in partnership with the Associated Laboratory for Green Chemistry (LAQV) of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the New University of Lisbon |
NOVA FCT and the companies GreenBePharma (GBP) - production of medicinal cannabis and AGR Global - cultivation and production of olive groves (De Prado Group), one of the winners of the 6th edition of the ”la Caixa” Foundation's Promove Program, in collaboration with BPI and the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), in the category of innovative pilot projects. The project will make it possible to exploit the by-products of medicinal cannabis production as sustainable and effective biopesticides to control the main diseases of the olive grove.
InPP is marking National Sustainability Day with the public presentation of the ValorCannBio project, which seeks to contribute to sustainability by developing sustainable biopesticides to control two of the most important diseases of the olive grove, a crop of extreme economic and social importance in the Alentejo: Gafa and Tuberculosis. Gafa is considered a priority because it causes production losses of up to 100 percent, corresponding to more than 50 million euros, a reduction in olive oil quality and is leading to the disappearance of the genetic heritage of traditional olive varieties such as the Galician, which is highly susceptible to the disease. Tuberculosis is an olive disease that spreads to almost all olive groves and reduces the quality of the oil.
In order to help control the two diseases that affect olive groves, the team of researchers involved in the project will develop a biopesticide from the leaves of the cannabis plant, which are considered surplus from the medical cannabis production process in Portugal and legally have to be destroyed. This process will make it possible to meet the needs of olive growers, but also to open up a new value chain associated with the use of a by-product of the plant's production industry for medicinal purposes.
“The existing solutions on the market to combat Gafa and Tuberculosis are ineffective and fall into groups of chemically synthesized pesticides, which have negative impacts on the environment and are being discontinued, so it is urgent to find alternatives. On the other hand, cannabis companies could sell the surplus biomass to a future biopesticide industry, avoiding the high costs of destruction and investing in a circular economy. This project aims to integrate the concepts of sustainable agriculture, combined with green chemistry, to obtain more environmentally friendly products,” explains Ana Rita Duarte, a researcher at the LAQV of the Faculty of Science and Technology of Universidade Nova de Lisboa |NOVA FCT.
For Cristina Azevedo, director of the New Biopesticides department at the collaborative laboratory InPP, based in Elvas, “by developing biobased biopesticides from by-products of an industry that is booming at national level, particularly in the Alentejo, ValorCannBio will contribute to the goals set by the European Commission in the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategy, of reducing the use of chemically synthesized pesticides by 50 percent by 2050.”.
The director of the InPP department also assures us that “all the impacts of ValorCannBio will initially be felt in the municipality of Elvas, where the project will take place. However, it is expected that these will extend to the entire olive-growing region, from Trás-os-Montes to the Algarve, where production losses due to Gafa and Tuberculosis are on the increase.”.
The project presented today has been awarded to a team that has already won several national and international awards.
The Promove program wants entities to use their non-repayable grants to move from theory to practice: to understand the viability of scientific concepts under development, as well as to explore business opportunities or prepare patent applications. In this specific case, the team wants to assess the commercial potential of this new solution in the market.
For more information on ValorCannBio, visit the project's website here.
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