Can organic agriculture cope without copper for disease control?

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Copper is used to control various fungal or bacterial diseases, mainly in
grapes, in fruit production and in vegetable crops. It is the only active
substance approved in organic farming with a strong fungicidal effect and a
wide range of action. However, the demonstration of the negative environmental
effects of copper, in particular on soil and water organisms, led to
regulatory restrictions on use (capping of authorized doses), and even to its
ban as a pesticide in some Northern European countries.

These increasing restrictions on the use of copper, which put growers who
cannot use synthetic fungicides under severe constraints, led to a recurrent
demand for "alternatives". Numerous experimental studies have therefore been
carried out to identify and test other techniques: the use of disease-
resistant varieties, the application of naturally-occurring substances that
have a biocidal effect and/or stimulate the plant's natural defenses, the use
of microbiological control agents, the adoption of prophylactic management,
and the installation of physical protection. However, results remain
scattered, and these control methods are rarely implemented in the field.

Resulting from a collective scientific assessment, this volume, first
published in French in 2019, is a multidisciplinary and critical synthesis of
the knowledge available on the subject. It describes and assesses the
different techniques potentially effective against pathogens controlled by
copper treatments, and insists upon the need to combine them in integrated
crop protection systems.



The French version of this book, Peut-on se passer du cuivre en protection des
cultures biologiques ?, is available on our website.

La version française de ce titre, Peut-on se passer du cuivre en protection
des cultures biologiques ?, est disponible sur notre site.