PlantStressLab -BIOSUVEG

Innovative biostimulants for sustainable fruit production from vegetable crops

BIOSUVEG has been an international research project approved under the EIT FOOD PROGRAMME. It has been coordinated by the University of Turin and with an international partnership consisting of Grupo AN (Spain), TUM-Technische Universität München (Germany) and Strigolab (spin-off company of the University of Turin).Its aim was to test and launch on the market an innovative biostimulant designed in the laboratories of the University of Turin.

The BIOSUVEG project goal is making vegetable cultivation more environmentally and economically sustainable by enhancing crop yields under challenging environmental conditions.  We have developed a product which enhances vegetable crop yields by increasing their resilience to environmental changes, and this project will enable us to thoroughly test and bring this product to market, making it available to a wide-range of producers for a wide-range of crops. The product we have developed is a biostimulant, which is derived from beneficial plant extracts which naturally boost plant resilience to conditions such as drought and nutrient stress. During the project, the research group has optimised the formulation of the biostimulant and test it under different operational conditions, evaluating crop performance as both yield and nutritional quality.

The main activity consisted in optimizing the formulation of the biostimulant, so that each partner can tests it and valid in real situations, in greenhouses and on open soil, in various conditions of stress for plants (drought, salinity, soil fertility), in order to move from a prototypical state to a product ready for the market.  By the end of the project, the project research group has taken the biostimulant to TRL7 (system prototype demonstration in operational environment).

The effects of the treatment are evaluated by analysis of the quality of the fruits produced under the different experimental conditions. The project also includes the study of the market potential of the biostimulant as well as communication actions towards farmers and consumers.