DEVELOPMENT OF NEW INSECTICIDES AND FUNGICIDES

Rising incomes, improved transport, improved production technologies, and international agreements have led to a rapid expansion of global trade in vegetables, including asparagus, Asparagus officinalis. The demand-side factors, which include rising incomes and the creation of a new consumer class of 1.1 billion consumers worldwide, demanding quality produce in all seasons and willing to pay for, will have major consequences for improved production. Seeds, seedlings, soil, field selection, planting methods, fertilizer, irrigation and pest control methods including the use of modern crop protection products are key factors in safeguarding the production of valuable and safe quality food. In the field of pest control, the industry has undergone a significant consolidation process during the last 15 years. In 1990, there were still 13 companies in this field with global research and development activities. There are now only six global players left, and together these make up more than 80% of the market. Research and development in the plant protection industry has become a highly complex and costly operation. High-throughput technologies have been added to the discovery process of plant protection products, using input from genomics, proteomics, informatics, miniaturization and combinatorial chemistry. At present, robots are running which can test on a nanoliter scale. It is safe to assume that these technologies will support chemists and biologists decisively in their quest to invent highly specific active crop protection products. An account is given here of the development of new insecticides and fungicides and their relevance for the control of the main diseases of asparagus, i.e. Fusarium stem and crown rot caused by Fusarium moniliforme, Fusarium wilt and root rot caused by Fusarium oxysporum, the purple spot, Stemphylium vesicarium, the gray mold shoot blight, Botrytis cinerea, the Cercospora blight fungus, and the asparagus rust caused by Puccinia asparagi, also the main insect pests such as the asparagus beetle, Crioceris asparagi, the spotted asparagus beetle, Crioceris duodecimpunctata, the asparagus fly, Platyparea poeciloptera, the asparagus aphid, Brachycolus asparagus, some cutworm species and other asparagus pests.