Endophytic Biological Control for Cassava and Beans

Souroush Parsa of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia, along with Fernando E. Vega of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will research whether fungi that kill insect pests can become endophytic in crop seeds, meaning the fungi can live within resulting plants without harming them. This would allow smallholder farmers to inoculate crop seeds using much smaller quantities of the fungal pathogens than when used in sprays over entire fields, providing a cheaper and more durable biological control method.