When Myxobacteria Travel: Localizing a Laboratory Biocontrol Technology in Xinjiang Pear Orchards

Abstract

Laboratory-validated agricultural technologies often perform unpredictably once introduced into local farming environments, yet the reasons for this gap remain insufficiently understood. Drawing on field research in Korla pear orchards in southern Xinjiang, China, this article examines how a laboratory-developed myxobacterial biocontrol agent encounters diverse ecological, social, and institutional conditions during its implementation against fire blight. Rather than asking whether the technology is effective, the article asks how its effectiveness is continually reconfigured through interactions among pathogens, pear trees, farmers, technicians, agricultural markets, and regional governance systems. Building on Bruno Latour's Actor-Network Theory and Margaret Lock's concept of Local Biologies, this article develops Local Agricultural Biologies as an analytical framework to explain how agricultural diseases and biocontrol technologies are co-produced through localized ecological, biological, socio-economic, and governance processes. It argues that the limited field performance of myxobacterial biocontrol is not simply a technological failure, but the outcome of multiple translation failures across heterogeneous actor-networks. By conceptualizing agricultural disease as a situated and relational process rather than a universal biological condition, the article extends Local Biologies beyond human health and offers a new perspective for understanding the localization of agricultural technologies and the adaptive governance of sustainable crop protection.