All the news

• News from BIOCOMES
  

  The latest newsletter from BIOCOMES is now available, providing readers with updates on some of the 11 new biological control products the project is developing for a number of important pests and diseases in agriculture, horticulture and forestry.

• Events calendar: Check it out!
  

  We regularly update our events calendar and five new events have been recently added. New events include July’s SIP2016 - International Congress on Invertebrate Pathology and Microbial Control and 49th Annual Meeting of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology in France’s Loire Valley and the following month’s 32nd European Society of Nematologists (ESN) symposium in Braga, Portugal.

• Herbicide-tolerant crops in IWM
  

  Scientists have proposed five actions to facilitate the incorporation of herbicide-tolerant crops in Integrated Weed Management (IWM) systems and have emphasised that the same approach should be taken whether the crops are conventionally bred or genetically modified to be herbicide-resistant.

• New website for EuroWheat
  

  EuroWheat, the European knowledge hub which has its origins in the original ENDURE Network of Excellence (2007-2010), now has a new website and logo. As EuroWheat explains on its new site, wheat remains one of Europe’s most important crops and its production faces some particular challenges.

• Learning from PURE: Grapevine
  

  While the area dedicated to vineyards may have shrunk across Europe over the past decade, grape production remains very important, with European vineyards accounting for more than half of the world’s total vineyard surface. And it’s a crop which offers particular challenges for Integrated Pest Management (IPM), because pesticide use generally remains high and some of the options available in annual crops, such as rotations, are not feasible.

• Learning from PURE: Protected crops
  

  One of the legacies of the PURE project (‘Innovative crop protection for sustainable agriculture’) is a range of resources to encourage the implementation of Integrated Pest Management solutions in a selection of crops. Of these, comprehensive material is available for IPM in protected crops, with a particular focus on tomato production.

• Potato blight info now online
  

  The proceedings of EuroBlight’s 15th workshop, held in Brasov, Romania, in 2015, are now available on the network’s website. The main objective of the workshop was to present and discuss recent results on integrated control of late and early blight in potato.

• Interview: Jürgen Köhl, BIOCOMES
  

  The BIOCOMES (‘Biological control manufacturers in Europe develop novel biological control products to support the implementation of Integrated Pest Management in agriculture and forestry’) project is aiming to deliver at least 11 new biological products to control significant diseases and pests over the coming years. With the project, which brings together 27 business and research partners from 14 different countries, passing the halfway point, ENDURE spoke to BIOCOMES coordinator Jürgen Köhl (pictured right) from Wageningen UR in the Netherlands.

• UK invests in innovative agriculture
  

  The United Kingdom is investing £68 million (€87 million) in the launch of three new Centres for Agricultural Innovation, focusing on crop health and protection, agricultural engineering and precision farming, and excellence in livestock production. The three new centres will collaborate with the first Centre for Agricultural Innovation, launched late last year, which is called Agrimetrics and deals with data science and modelling.

• Focusing on the value of demonstration farms
  

  A joint workshop focusing on the organisation and benefits of Integrated Pest Management demonstration farms is to be held in Bonn, Germany, in May 2016. The event is being jointly organised by the C-IPM ERA-NET, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) and the European Commission's Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE).