All the news

• Reducing pesticide use in French vineyards
  

  France enjoys a worldwide reputation for the quality of its wines, but the sector is a significant user of plant protection products, driven in large part by the threats posed by downy and powdery mildew. The sector has sought to innovate its crop protection practices over recent years and a new booklet highlights the progress made in the country’s DEPHY vineyard demonstration network, including the remarkable trajectories of selected winegrowers.

• Publication: Transforming French crop protection
  

  A new paper now available online reveals the extraordinary policy efforts made in France in order to reduce the use of chemical plant protection products and transform the country’s agriculture. Written by ENDURE communications team member Jay-Ram Lamichhane and ENDURE’s current and past coordinators, Antoine Messéan and Pierre Ricci respectively, the paper is published in Advances in Agronomy.

• IWM experiments: Get the booklet!
  

  The IWMPRAISE project, which is focused on Integrated Weed Management in a range of important crops across Europe, has produced the 2018 edition of its comprehensive booklet outlining its ongoing experimental trials.

• News from the East: Tackling FAW
  

  The latest Arab and Near East Plant Protection Newsletter (ANEPPNEL) is now available, bringing readers up to date with all the latest news from the region. This includes crop protection news from Arab and Near East countries, news on invasive and new pests, the pick of the region’s research highlights and news from the FAO’s regional office for the Near East and North Africa (FAORNE).

• Taiwan hosts tomato event
  

  The International Society for Horticultural Science’s sixth International Symposium on Tomato Diseases takes place in Taichung, Taiwan, from May 6 to 9, 2019. The focus of the symposium will be ‘managing tomato diseases in the face of globalisation and climate change’.

• Don’t miss ENDURE News!
  

  If you are not a subscriber to ENDURE News, the twice yearly newsletter from ENDURE, you can now download it below. December’s newsletter includes nearly 20 news items written over the past six months.

• 2nd Plant BioProTech set for 2019
  

  Following last year’s first Plant BioProTech international symposium held in France, a second edition is being planned for November 19 to 22, 2019, in Marrakech, Morocco. The organisers note: “The symposium brings together international researchers and industrials from different disciplines: plant-microbe interactions, plant physiology, molecular biology, pathology...Our Plant BioProTech symposium focuses on microorganisms and natural elicitors active on plant protection, and their impact on agricultural practices in the future.”

• Making the most of EcophytoPIC
  

  EcophytoPIC, France’s Integrated Pest Management portal, has introduced four news sections which make it simpler to keep up to date with fresh information on IPM. These sections are dedicated to summaries which offer one-page information on a technique, pest or event; dossiers providing complete and detailed information on a particular theme; news from the press and around the web; and a section enabling users to inform themselves on a particular innovation or IPM tool.

• Demonstration network up and running
  

  With the EUCLID project (Europe China Lever for IPM Demonstration) moving into its third year, 2018 has seen the debut of its Innovation Demonstration Network, which is seen as a crucial step as it takes innovative research work conducted in the lab to the field.

• Shifting to pesticide-free agriculture
  

  In preparation for the European Commission’s €100 billion Horizon Europe research and innovation framework programme, set to be launched in 2021, European institutes have come together with the ambitious target of moving towards chemical pesticide-free agriculture in Europe.