In the Innovation Section of AGROPOPULAR, they have interviewed Alberto Fereres, Research Professor of the Department of Plant Protection of the Higher Center for Scientific Research (CSIC), about the latest advances in research to control and eradicate the Xylella fastidiosa bacterium.
As Fereres commented, they have results that indicate the plant species that can be used for cover crops and that would not be attractive for Xylella vectors. «That is, we could use some species that can repel or make them avoid these insects that transmit the disease.»
Experiments that were completed this fall indicate that, for example, «white mustard can be used as a trap plant to attract these insects». In this sense, Fereres highlighted the importance of this finding since «if we can use some of these species that repel the insect, we could reduce the pressure of this on any woody crop».
The CSIC researcher added that cover crops are increasingly being used to reduce erosion and have better soil conservation and that therein lies the importance of this discovery, since, currently, the cover crops that are being used “are a mixture of seeds that on some occasions it was not known whether or not they were suitable plants for the management of Xylella ”. However, with the data they now have, they can recommend to farmers which species they should plant as ground covers and which ones they should not.