The conference, Sustainable Use of Pesticides and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in East-Central Europe and the Baltics, is being funded by IHAR and Poland’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and will cover policy, research and extension questions.

ENDURE is providing scientific support for the event, which will be a timely opportunity to take stock of the current National Action Plans and research and advisory needs of countries in the region as they progress towards the implementation of IPM, as required in the Framework Directive on the sustainable use of pesticides (Directive 2009/128/EC).

The event is being held at the IHAR headquarters in Radzikow, near Warsaw, on September 5 and 6 and will include speakers from Poland, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Estonia and Germany in addition to a number of presentations from ENDURE members, as well as the opportunity to use the ENDURE Information Centre.

ENDURE contributions will include details of how ENDURE is pooling resources for the sustainability of crop protection in Europe from coordinator Antoine Messéan (INRA, France) and details of how member states are dealing with national targets in pesticide reduction programmes from Silke Dachbrodt-Saaydeh (JKI, Germany) and ENDURE scientific officer Marco Barzman (INRA, France).

Jens Erik Jensen, from Denmark’s Knowledge Centre for Agriculture and Huub Schepers from Wageningen University and Research Centre in The Netherlands, will be presenting ENDURE’s resources for advisory services, specifically the ENDURE Network of Advisers, IPM Training Guide and the ENDURE Information Centre.

The first day closes with a session examining advisory services and the prospects for IPM in specific countries, including a focus on Germany from JKI’s Bernd Hommel and on Hungary from Szent Istvan University’s Jozsef Kiss.

Day two includes a look at the implementation of online crop protection in Poland and Germany from Per Rydahl of Aarhus University in Denmark, an examination of the opportunities to strengthen pest monitoring systems and Decision Support Systems from IHAR’s Józefa Kapsa and a presentation of Wageningen University’s work on Decision Support System 2.0: combining plant genetic resistance against Phytophthora with virulence monitoring in potatoes from Piet Boonekamp.

Other ENDURE speakers include Per Kudsk, from Denmark’s Aarhus University, who will be examining the reduction of pesticide doses, reflecting on experiences in the Nordic-Baltic region and the risk of selecting for resistant biotypes, and IHAR’s Edward Arseniuk, who will be looking at his institute’s work on germplasm development and enhancement for integrated crop protection.

You can find more details of the event on the IHAR website or download the conference invitation and agenda below:

• CONFERENCE INVITATION [pdf - 1.24 MB]

• AGENDA CONFERENCE PL [pdf - 595.05 kB]

This event will be the third time ENDURE has provided support for meetings held under EU presidencies. The first was the EU Expert Meeting on ‘National plans and programmes for the reduction of risks associated with the use of plant protection products’ held in Berlin in 2007 and organised by  Germany’s Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV). You can read more here: 

• Summary - National plans and programmes for the reduction of risks associated with the use of plant protection products [pdf - 1.12 MB]

The second was ‘Sustainable Agriculture and Pesticides’, held in Paris in 2008 and organised by the French Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries under the French presidency of the EU. You can read more on the official French site for the event or here on the ENDURE website.