Solving pest challenges in Palestinian vegetable crops with plant teams

Palestinian organic farmers face difficulties in producing organic vegetables without pest damage. CORE set up farm demonstration trials to show how plant teams innovations could assist farmers in addressing some of these challenges. Three different combinations of vegetable and herb crops were planted and monitored to demonstrate the potential for better control of insect pests using plant teams under Palestinian farming conditions.

These were: i) Radish with Cauliflower and Cabbage, where radish was planted as a barrier crop around the cauliflower and cabbage, leading to reduced insect damage to cauliflower and cabbage by Phyllotreta crossiferae; ii) Basil with Tomato, where basil acts as a repellent to the insect pest Tuta absoluta, reducing leaf miner infestation of tomato plants; and iii) Eggplant-Tomato, where eggplants act as a repellent to white fly, reducing infestation on the tomato crop.