Daniela Balabanova, BTA
In the village of Doirentsi in Lovech the only national bio-entomological laboratory for mass industrial cultivation of the bioagent trichogramma has been built, Borislav Boychinov, manager of Organik Invest Bio Protection Ltd., announced at a press conference in the Regional Press Club of BTA in Lovech.
According to him, the enterprise is engaged in industrial production of the most powerful bioagent – trichogramma, which helps farmers to cope with plant pests.
They hunt them with special traps and snares in different crops, in a clean natural environment – in orchards, corn, sunflowers, vineyards, forests, etc. They have their own base with a breeding bank. In it, they have collected different species of trichogram.
“These bioagents by smell find the pest eggs and parasitise them, that is, they lay their eggs in the pest eggs. Trichogramma fights about 400 species of insects. It does not destroy them, but keeps a natural balance. This is very important for farmers and for nature. When a natural bioagent is sprayed, it regulates the level of pests, also keeping all the other beneficial insects that pollinate plants or fight other pests. It’s not like chemical pesticides that destroy everything,” Boychinov pointed out.
In his words, his laboratory is one of the largest in Europe. They have the ability to industrially produce trichogramma for about 2 million acres of various crops.
Boychinov’s idea to build such a laboratory in the village of Lovetsk came from the fact that he had a similar enterprise in Ukraine for more than 20 years. Then he decided to move to Europe and reached the village of Doirentsi. He decided to revive something very good in Bulgaria, old but forgotten.
According to him, there were six laboratories in our country until 1990 and we were one of the largest producers of bioagents. There are 19 species of trichogramma in Bulgaria, but they are not concentrated in one place.
“The strange thing is that the experience we have had, we have passed it on to Germany and now there the use of trichogramma is very well developed, strongly tolerated by the state, with large subsidies for farmers”, added Borislav Boychinov.
The most complicated part of the trichogramma production process, he says, is the means of its dispersal, as drones are needed.
At the moment the company works only for Bulgaria, but they also have offers for Romania, Greece and Turkey. “We’ve been operating for less than a year, but clearly people are well informed. The capacity of our laboratory is quite large, and we still do not have a sufficient market in Bulgaria, so we intend to go to Romania soon,” the manager said.
For smaller farms, they make manual trichogramma displacement packs, for virtually all crop types.
The official scientific consultants of the company are academician Prof. Dr. of Biological Sciences Valentin Drozda from Ukraine, Prof. Prof. Vili Kharizanova from Agricultural University – Plovdiv, prof. Georgi Georgiev and prof. Margarita Georgieva – Institute of Forestry – BAS and others. The team consists of 35 people, including Ukrainian citizens.
Boychinov’s goal is to make the laboratory the largest biological centre for plant protection in the European Union.
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