Background and Importance :

     Growing good quality crops with high quality to meet the market demand is the main target of farmers. But the main obstacle is the problem causing by pests. Practically, farmers prefer using chemicals because it is convenient to use and has good efficiency in pest control. However, it is known that the use of chemicals seriously harms to the natural balance of agriculture. The appropriate pest reduction is pest management using a combination of highly efficient chemical and biological methods. Therefore, Walailak University's research team has studied the use of fungi in pest control. It was found that T. asperellum NST-009 is highly effective in controlling plant diseases. It can create many types of antibiotics that promote plant growth. It dissolves nutrients in the soil and also induced plants to build immunity. This fungal strain has been developed for further production as bio-pesticide to eliminate plant diseases that will make plant products of higher quality and safer for both

Technology :

      Researchers have discovered the fungus T. asperellum NST-009, a species that is isolated from the roots of the fern (Cyathea podophylla) collected from Khao Luang Mountain of Nakhon Si Thammarat province. A total of more than 2,000 species were investigated. It was found that NST-009 strain is highly effective in controlling plant diseases. The mechanism to destroy the plant pathogens is by mycoparasite and producing antibiosis. It found to promote plant growth promoting, dissolve nutrients and inducing plants immunity. It has been developed as an innovation of plant disease elimination products that have won the National Invention and Innovation Award 2020

Advantages / Pros :

1. It has high efficiency of plant disease control and able to control a wide range of plant diseases such as root rot and shoot rot, white rubber root disease, damping-off of vegetables, anthracnose disease of capsicum and important diseases of rice etc.
2.It Promotes plant growth and helps to dissolve trace elements that are beneficial to plants.
3. It can naturally proliferate well in soil contaminated with agricultural chemicals.
4. It grows fast and possesses different parts of plants well.
5. It tolerates dry weather and high temperature.