Agroscope, ENDURE’s Swiss partner, is stepping up its communication efforts in order to makes its research achievements in plant protection better known to agricultural practitioners. Agroscope is ‘giving its experts the floor’, beginning with an interview with Agroscope head Eva Reinhard, in which she explains what research is achieving and can still achieve.
The Agroscope website notes: “As part of the new 2018-21 Work Programme, Agroscope - the Swiss Confederation’s centre of excellence for research in the agriculture and food sector - has made a major contribution to the implementation of the Action Plan for Risk Reduction and Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products - the PPP Action Plan for short - with over 50 research projects.”
Agroscope’s work has included the breeding of disease tolerant or resistant varieties, including Fred pear, Divico and Divona grapes, Lisa apricot, Rustica and Galiwa apples and many wheat varieties. Other work has included tools to help farmers make smarter decisions and preparing for possible new threats.
In the interview, Eva Reinhard explains: “Our current work programme for 2018–21 shows that we are making a major contribution to the National Action Plan on Plant Protection Products: over 50 of our 117 research projects come into this area.
“The overarching objective is to reduce the overall use of plant protection products, especially products with a high risk potential. However, I don’t like to make too strong a distinction between different groups of plant protection products. Basically, all of the products applied are intended to repel or eliminate unwanted living organisms. So the development of direct and indirect alternatives to synthetic plant protection products is a top priority for Agroscope.
“In the area of preventive, indirect measures, we are breeding new disease-resistant varieties, developing tests and instruments to detect pests before they cross national boundaries, and optimising growing methods to promote beneficial insects or to refine tried and tested crop rotation systems in arable farming. As already mentioned, we are providing farmers with decision-making support by developing early warning and forecasting systems and setting damage thresholds.
“Further research work is being carried out in the area of non-chemical control. For example, the netting of fruit trees helps to avoid hail damage; unblemished fruit is less susceptible to fungal attack and has a longer shelf life. We are also working in the area of indoor solutions and closed circuits, e.g. in glasshouses. In short, there is no one miracle solution that will allow us to dispense with plant protection products. Rather, there is a range of measures which, when combined, will lead to a noticeable reduction in the application of synthetic products.”
She also discusses recent figures from Switzerland’s Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) that show sales of synthetic plant protection products, and especially herbicides, have fallen by 29% since 2008.
She explains: “On the one hand, I attribute this to the alternative methods that have been developed by research in recent years and are being applied today in farming practice. For example, Swiss farmers are now using mechanical weed control much more often. This is being done not only by hand, but also by robots that make the farmers’ work easier.
“In addition, farming has adapted its production methods and is increasingly using cultivation systems that reduce weed pressure or contribute to biodiversity by using native weeds. For example: in the past there was virtually no vegetation in between the vines in vineyards. Today we know that certain companion plants enrich biodiversity and – provided the weeds don’t emerge too strongly – can even help to reduce pest pressure by providing new habitat for beneficial insects. On the other hand, public debate has probably led to today’s farmers thinking twice about whether the use of synthetic plant protection products is really necessary.”
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