Project photos: Odermatt | Swiss Forum for International Agricultural Research - SFIAR

Project photos: Odermatt

Daria Odermatt: Winner of SFIAR Master's Thesis Award 2024

Determination of the Functional Role of Desmodium Volatiles on the Fall Armyworm in Push-Pull Systems (submitted at University of Zürich)

Push-pull systems use repellent stimuli from intercrops ("push") to repel herbivores and attract their predators and parasitoids, and attracting stimuli from border plants ("pull") to lead herbivorous insects out of the crop. In this picture, farmer Roskhadir Okich and Daria Odermatt are standing in front of a push-pull field.

Plant volatiles from Desmodium plants were collected directly on farmers' push-pull fields using mobile entrainment kits powered by batteries.

Oviposition bioassays were intensive, as all egg batches had to be collected and each individual egg had to be counted. Many helping hands were needed, and a total of approximately 113'000 eggs were counted.

The odor preference of the fall armyworm moth was observed in a dual-choice system where volatiles of different plants could enter the setup from two sides.