All the news about the ENDURE Network can be found in these pages.
French Integrated Pest Management (IPM) experts have provided an update on the biological control situation in the country, where these alternative control methods continue to be become more widely used in IPM strategies. The authors identify some of the key drivers behind these developments, including legal changes to encourage the development of new biocontrol options, major investments in both public and private research, the development of experimental networks and projects and the incorporation of biocontrol in the country’s pesticide savings certificate scheme (Certificats d’Economie de Produits de Phytopharmaceutiques or CEPP).
New ways of keeping up with the DiverIMPACTS project (Diversification through Rotation, Intercropping, Multiple Cropping, Promoted with Actors and value-Chains towards Sustainability) are now available with the publication of its first newsletter and the production of an informative flyer. Funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, DiverIMPACTS brings together 34 partners from 11 countries, including farmers and farmer organisations, advisory services, cooperatives, logistics providers, scientists, industry professionals and representatives of civil society and rural areas with the aim of exploring the full potential of diversifying cropping systems and thereby improving agricultural productivity and resource efficiency and creating sustainable value chains.
Researchers from INRA (France’s National Institute for Agricultural Research) have reported on their long-term experimental work on apple orchards, which has seen them reduce pesticide use by up to 50% through a series of measures based on increased forecasting and observation of pests and diseases.
The European Commission has urged Member States to “significantly” improve their National Action Plans (NAP) to address the shortcomings identified in their review of progress on the implementation of the Pesticides Directive (2009/128/EC) and to “establish more precise and measurable targets”.
The prospects of new biological controls to combat spotted-wing drosophila, a serious invasive pest causing extensive economic damage in berries and stone fruit, have moved a step closer thanks to two projects involving ENDURE partners.
CIRAD and INRA, two of ENDURE’s French partners, have combined forces with other research and higher educational institutions to form a network to drive innovation in the control of not only crop pests but also arthropods which transmit pathogens causing infectious diseases in humans and animals.
ENDURE’s Swiss partner Agroscope is leading the organisation of the XV European Society for Agronomy Congress, which runs from August 27 to 31 in the lakeside city of Geneva and will address the theme of ‘Innovative cropping and farming systems for high quality food production.’
The first newsletter from Agroecology Europe is now available, offering reports and video from last October’s European Agroecology Forum, which brought together more than 300 farmers, researchers, students, policy makers and representatives from social movements and civil society in Lyon, France.
EuroBlight, the potato late blight network for Europe, has revealed the findings of its ongoing work to chart changes in the European population of the pathogen, a major effort which saw almost 1,500 samples from 16 countries genotyped in last year’s growing season.
EuroWheat has stressed the importance of implementing Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies in wheat as fungicide resistance continues to develop across the continent, raising concerns about the impact of Septoria tritici blotch (STB) on yields.
Last update: 24/05/2023 - ENDURE © 2009 - Contact ENDURE - Disclaimer