Agricultural productivity needs to rise by 70% by 2050 to provide sufficient food for the growing population on a limited amount of land and water, while climate change and the onset of insect resistance makes pest control increasingly difficult. The current (overused) tools, chemical insecticides and GMO-crops, are not sustainable and most of the alternative biological solutions are not feasible for the large scale agriculture in row crops due to the high cost, complicated application methods, and inconsistent performance. Mating Disruption (MD) is an effective, affordable, and sustainable pest control method, which uses insect sex pheromones to prevent pest reproduction by disrupting their ability to attract mating partners. Mating Disruption is a scalable new solution for row crops, with 20-years of successful application in specialty crops. MD is a sustainable, non-toxic pest control method, which does not affect biodiversity, soil, or groundwater. The key objectives of PHERA are to demonstrate cost-efficient production of three bio-based pheromones at full industrial scale and to demonstrate pheromone effectiveness for pest control and for sustainable increase of agricultural productivity in the field. The cost of pheromones has been a key barrier to the wide adoption of MD in row crops. Biological production of radically cheaper pheromones is a disruptive technology that will allow the application of pheromones for pest control in row crops. PHERA will create a new value chain across biotech and ag-tech, and the consortium brings together all required expertise in biotech production and pheromone formulation and application. PHERA will create a new ag-tech business for MD solutions in row crop applications worth €640 million and 300 new jobs by 2027, and a long-term potential in excess of €2 billion. The new products developed in PHERA will have a substantial positive impact on the sustainability profile of large-scale row crop production.

The agriculture is under a pressing need for alternatives to insecticides for pest control. The ban of three neonicotinoids used as insecticides was settled in April 2018 by the European Union. At the same time, agricultural productivity needs to rise to provide sufficient nutritious food for a growing population. Moreover, a recent study predicts an increase in global yield losses of rice, maize and wheat by 10-25% per degree of global mean surface warming due to increased population growth and metabolic rates of insects. Pheromones, which are naturally produced by different insect species, represent a health- and environment-friendly alternative to insecticides. Dispensing small amounts of sex pheromones in the fields or orchards confuses males, prevents mating and hence larvae formation. This method is called “mating disruption”. Pheromones are attractive, because they are biodegradable, species-specific compounds, which neither harm beneficial species nor humans. Nevertheless, pheromones are still not widely used, mainly because of the high costs of synthetic pheromones, labor-intensive application of pheromone dispensers, and lack of knowledge on efficacy of pheromone release methods. Therefore, the goal of the project is the sustainable and cost-efficient production of insect pheromones by fermentation in engineered oleaginous yeasts. Moreover, this project will also research into efficacy of different methods for pheromone release. As a consequence, the hurdles for a widespread pheromone usage will be decreased. This would support the development of a long-term sustainable and efficient agricultural sector. Through a wide dissemination and educational campaign, we will raise the awareness of pheromones as pesticide alternatives among farmers, politicians and the general public.

The academic and industrial partners engaged in the OLEFINE project have the joint vision of demonstrating the techno-economic viability and sustainability of biological production of insect pheromones for use as safe and environmentally friendly insecticide substitutes. Biological production of cheaper pheromones will be a market disrupting technology that will allow rapid expansion of pheromone-based pest management products. The partners behind OLEFINE have developed a novel technology for biological production of pheromones using oleaginous yeast cell factories, however the strains, fermentation, and downstream process need to be further optimized to bring the technology to the market. OLEFINE aims to optimize, validate, and commercialize biotech process for production of high-added-value chemicals (insect pheromones) for use as non-toxic insecticide replacements. Cost-efficiency and sustainability of the current process will be lifted in this project by optimizing the yeast biocatalyst and by employing innovative fermentation and downstream processing with cascading of resources. The production cost will be reduced by at least 75% in relation to the current state-of-the-art. The process will be validated in industrial environment for two pheromones (TRL7), techno-economic viability will be estimated and business plans will be prepared. The environmental impact and sustainability will be evaluated by full Life Cycle Analysis. The technology will be brought to the market by OLEFINE industrial partners post project. In summary, OLEFINE will bring new sustainable high-value chemicals to the market and create new business opportunities and jobs in European biotech sector, which is in line with the challenge of the topic.