PHAG-2S - I2T

PHAG-2S

Phage Therapy in Market Gardening and Arboriculture: Scientific Validation and Societal Relevance

The PHAG‑2S project explores phage therapy as a biocontrol strategy to manage bacterial plant diseases and support agroecological transition toward resilient, low-input farming systems. It also investigates the emergence of a multi-actor community around this innovation, combining agronomic testing with sociological analysis of its development and appropriation.

This project is coordinated by Franck Bertolla, with Fabien Milanovic responsible for the sociological aspect. Tom Chabosseau has been recruited as a postdoctoral researcher and is funded until April 2026.

PHAG-2S has two objectives. First, it aims to explore phage therapy as a new strategy for controlling plant bacterial diseases in agriculture. Phage therapy, which involves the use of bacteriophages in biological control, is now considered a promising avenue for agronomy. Our goals are to test this innovative approach, which has been tried and tested in laboratories and experimental stations, and to contribute to the resilience of farms in the face of health risks and therefore economic and ecological risks, in particular by proposing a solution for the agroecological transition to low-input and resilient systems. The second objective, at the societal level, is to document and understand the emergence and development of the community of actors (producers-market gardeners, nut growers, researchers-engineers, distributors, consumers, etc.) in phage therapy within which this biocontrol strategy is developing. The contribution of the social sciences to this project consists in understanding the “ongoing” development (Akrich 1993) of a strategy to combat pathogenic bacteria using viruses as an “innovation process.” The study of this socio(bio)technical innovation process that is phage therapy, taken together with the constitution of the community of actors it mobilizes.

Funding - CASDAR1 2022 funding totaling €498k over three years, began on January 1, 2023