The decision fell on January 23, just four days after a judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union. After two exemptions granted by the government in 2021 and 2022, sugar beet producers are now prohibited from using neonicotinoids in their fields. These pesticides, which were widely used, were applied to control insects. In particular against aphids, vectors of jaundice which wreaks havoc in crops. In 2020, while neonicotinoids had been banned, an average of 30% of harvests had been lost. Deprived of chemical products, the beet growers therefore look gloomy, deploring the absence of an effective alternative to protect their vegetables.
The solution could come from the Agriodor laboratory, specializing in chemical ecology. Since 2019, its teams, based in the Biopôle nursery in Rennes, have been developing perfumes from plant extracts to fight against these pests. “We use plants that have a repellent effect on insects,” says Ené Leppik, who founded the company with Camille Delpoux and Alain Thibault. Patented, their recipe is of course kept secret. “These are plants that are found in nature and from which we will extract the odorous molecules before making mixtures like a perfumer”, specifies Camille Delpoux.
“30% less aphids the first year”
Currently being tested in a dozen plots in northern and central France, their repellent scent aims to keep aphids away from beet plots and limit their proliferation. “We are going to disturb them in their diet and their reproduction with bad smells so that they transmit the virus less”, summarizes Camille Delpoux.
A preventive treatment which produced encouraging initial results according to its designers with “30% less aphids in the first year” on the plots tested. “This will not make all the aphids disappear from the field, but it is complementary to other solutions”, assures Camille Delpoux, who hopes to market the product in 2025.
Repulsive or attractive scents
Agriodor is not only interested in growing beets. Since 2021, it has also marketed a perfume to fight weevil, a small beetle that attacks faba bean and lentil crops. But rather than repelling the insect as for the beetroot, the scent this time will attract it to better trap it. “We are developing specific odors for each targeted pest so that it does not disturb biodiversity in the fields,” says Ené Leppik.
Among the other perfumes under study, the Rennes start-up is also working on an alternative to phosmet, an insecticide banned since this fall which was used in particular for the cultivation of rapeseed. To finance its research and pursue its growth, Agriodor, which has about fifteen employees, has just completed a fundraising campaign with investors such as BNP Paribas Développement or Breizh Up.