The commercialisation of a biocontrol technique to reduce aflatoxin in peanut crops has moved a step closer with the successful completion of a three-year collaborative research project involving the CSIRO, Queensland's Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (DPI&F) , the Peanut Company of Australia and the GRDC.

QDPI&F peanut agronomist Graeme Wright said pre-commercialisation trials during the 2003-2004 season confirmed that introducing a non-toxigenic strain of Aspergillus flavus at a rate of at least 300kg of inoculum per hectare could reduce the incidence of toxigenic strains of the fungus in the soil to a ratio equal to or greater than 10:1 (non-toxigenic:toxigenic) , provided other aflatoxin management was also used.

Dr Wright said the non-toxigenic strain did not produce aflatoxin even under stressful situations such as drought and high temperature stress.

Commercialisation of the inoculum now needed by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority.

It could be available to farmers by 2008.