Coming to Farms in 2027
Precision pest control for berry and cherry growers
Spotted wing drosophila (SWD) is one of the most damaging invasive pests in berry and cherry production. When you talk to farmers of those crops, everyone has a horror story (or several) about the pest whether they grow strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, cherries or something else.
The reason? SWD is not your typical fruit fly.
Unlike common fruit flies, SWD cuts into healthy fruit rather than feeding on overripe or damaged fruit. SWD then lays eggs in ripening fruit, and by the time damage is visible, much of a harvest can already be lost.
KNOCKOUT™ is designed to:
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Complement — not replace — the tools growers already use.
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Integrate into existing IPM programs.
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Give growers a proactive tool to help manage resistance.
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Protect fruit without residue on the crop.
Data and Testing
We have worked with university and USDA specialists in several major berry production states during the development of KNOCKOUT SWD and anticipate hearing results from the 2026 crop.
Researchers at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; Michigan State University, Oregon State; University of Florida; University of Georgia, Washington State; USDA sites and others.
For 2027, we will be working with a small group of farmers to better understand how it fits into commercial scale operations through the First Flight Club.
Beyond Berries and Cherries: What's Next
pgSIT is a platform, not a single product. Agragene is applying it — and researching applications — across some of agriculture's most challenging pest problems.
Other Crops
There are a lot of other pests that present challenging to crop production. We are developing KNOCKOUT to work on other insect pests including navel orange worm, Mediterranean fruit fly, Mexican fruit fly and Colorado potato beetle, and anticipate they will be next to be introduced.
Livestock (New World screwworm)
NWS is a devastating livestock pest and a live threat to animal agriculture in the Americas. In 2026, Agragene received grants from the USDA New World Screwworm Grand Challenge and the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research to advance precision-guided sterility approaches for NWS.
