Low environmental impact techniques and methodologies for the control of plant diseases

The course will provide to the students specialized knowledge on innovative tools for control of plant diseases, such as the use of natural molecules and biocontrol, with particular focus on the different mechanisms of action, theoretical bases of their effects, and the scientific and experimental process for determining their efficacy.
The theoretical notions will be complemented with practical activities carried out in greenhouse and laboratory, allowing students to obtain practical competences regarding the preparation, use, and evaluation of the effects of the tools the course focuses on.

At the end of the course, the students will be able to:
· describe the main low environmental impact innovative tools for the control of plant diseases, the differences between them, advantages and disadvantages, and cases of application for each;
· autonomously develop an experiment that aims at evaluating the efficacy of a biocontrol treatment at laboratory, greenhouse, or field scale;
· critically analyze experiments, scientific literature, and data on the topic of biocontrol to evaluate the real potential utilization of these tools.