Somewhere in a citrus grove in southern Europe, a tiny psyllid is carrying a pathogen that has already devastated orchards across Africa, Asia, and the Americas. A few hundred kilometres away, a bacterial disease is silently spreading through potato fields, threatening harvests and livelihoods. These are not isolated threats. They are symptoms of a global challenge, and they demand a global response.

This is where CITRUSBUSTERS and POMATO come in. Two Horizon Europe-funded research projects. While having different target crops and pests, they share one conviction: that in science, as in nature, working in silos is not an option.

Different fields, same fight

CITRUSBUSTERS was created to protect European citrus from three devastating threats: Candidatus Liberibacter, its insect vector Trioza erytreae, and the fungal disease Phyllosticta citricarpa — the culprits behind Citrus Greening (HLB) and Citrus Black Spot (CBS). These are quarantine pests in the EU, and their arrival in Mediterranean groves could trigger billion-euro losses.

POMATO, meanwhile, focuses on potato and tomato crops, fighting bacterial pathogens Clavibacter sepedonicus and Ralstonia solanacearum. These organisms that can devastate harvests and for which no simple chemical fix exists.

Both projects work on resistance gene identification, early detection using AI and drone imaging, biological and natural control solutions, and integrated pest management (IPM) strategies validated from the greenhouse to the open field. Both are committed to turning scientific results into tools that farmers, agronomists, and policymakers can actually use.

Why collaboration is our strategy

EU-funded research projects are sometimes criticised for operating in their own bubbles: producing papers, delivering outputs, then quietly closing at the end of their grant period. The activities stay in reports. The connections stay on paper. The impact stops at the project boundary.

CITRUSBUSTERS and POMATO are choosing a different path because the problems they address do not respect boundaries either.

Pests know no borders. A pathogen that evolves resistance to a treatment in one country will encounter the same treatment in another. A detection method that works for citrus diseases might spark insights to create early warning tools for solanaceous crops. A policy recommendation developed for one sector may strengthen another at the same time. The intellectual cross-pollination between projects is a force multiplier.

In nature, biodiversity is a strength. Monocultures – of crops, of ideas, of approaches – are vulnerabilities. The same logic applies to how we organise research.

What working together actually looks like

The collaboration between CITRUSBUSTERS and POMATO covers:

• Joint communication and dissemination: sharing findings with a broader audience than either project could reach alone
• Stakeholder engagement: connecting research to growers, advisors, policymakers, and industry across sectors
• Technical and knowledge exchange: learning from each other’s methodologies, data, and field experience
• Policy recommendations: aligning on messages that can influence plant health regulation at EU level
• Joint events and mutual support: building a community of practice, not just a network of projects
• Enrichment of the IPM toolbox: combining approaches to expand the toolkit available to practitioners

Our collaboration is about ensuring that the work done in labs and field trials finds its way into the real world: into the hands of people who need it, and onto the desks of people who shape the policies that govern it.

Towards a biosecure, resilient future

The threats facing European agriculture are not going to get easier. Climate change is expanding the geographic range of pests. Globalised trade creates more pathways for introduction. And the window for early intervention is narrow.

Meeting that challenge requires research that is fast, connected, and willing to learn across disciplines and crop systems. It requires projects that see themselves not as endpoints, but as contributors to something larger.

Chips, ketchup, and lemonade on the same mission. This is CITRUSBUSTERS and TOMATO in one table.

Learn more: citrusbusters.eu  |  pomato.eu