Lighting up the agrochemical route in weeds: novel Herbicide-Delivery-Devices for SusTainable AgricultuRe in Italy

The agricultural sector represents an important asset for the Italian food market, accounting for around 2.1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employing approximately 4% of the total Italian population. However, farmers are in alarm due to the occurring climate change that degrades the soil, and to the diffusion of resistant weed populations that can cause up to 45% of yield loss. Thus, there is an urgent need to protect the Italian agriculture sector, also considering the recently approved EU restrictions in terms of applied dosages of the chemical crop protection products. Industries are demanding more efficacious and selective agrochemicals to be developed in a relative short-time. The STAR project precisely fits this necessity through the development of novel Herbicide-Delivery-Devices (HDDs) that increase the efficiency of known herbicides by enhancing their translocation from the site of application to the biological target. These devices will be composed by a known herbicide connected to a vectorizing agent by a cleavable linker and/or a plant effective cell penetrating peptide. After a screening of suitable cleavable linkers, the newly synthesized HDDs will be screened in-vitro and in greenhouse trials to evaluate their efficacy against key driver weeds and crop selectivity profiles. A selection of up to 3 HDDs will be then subjected to specific field tests for Italian crops to give a clear picture of their efficacy under field conditions. The most promising HDDs (1 or 2) will be finally evaluated for the specific toxicological profile to set the foundations for the Main Industrial Development Phase. With the expected improved bioavailability of our HDDs, and thus with the decrease of the dosages, we believe that the STAR project will effectively make agrochemicals more efficient at controlling weed populations in Italy as first, finally achieving a sustainable weed management process that will respect the European restrictions arising to save our planet.