Experts from ENDURE and the European Research Area Network in Coordinated Integrated Pest Management (ERA-Net C-IPM) have reviewed the current state of the art of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) research and development, with a particular focus on how European agriculture is moving from conventional crop protection systems to IPM systems less reliant on pesticides, the major challenges encountered during this transition and future priorities to overcome existing IPM R&D challenges and so facilitate the uptake of more sustainable crop protection systems in European agriculture.
Writing in January’s Plant Disease, the authors emphasise that in view of the global challenges relating to food security, no alternatives to IPM can be currently imagined as only IPM can ensure food security on the one hand and environmental sustainability on the other.
They also highlight that less toxic conventional pesticides have an important role to play both now and in the future to ensure effective crop protection. More specifically to Europe, the authors stress that the marked biophysical and socio-economic differences across Europe have led to a situation where a meaningful reduction in pesticide use is hard to achieve. Nevertheless, large gains in pesticide reduction can be achieved through four different paths which need to be prioritised in the future:
The authors also stress that in order to develop and implement more sustainable crop protection strategies, research should be based on a multidisciplinary approach involving all actors in the food chain, both upstream and downstream. In addition, there needs to be a focus on innovation and co-innovation, which are key points for a more sustainable, productive and competitive agriculture that could address current and future problems relating to food security on the one hand and environmental sustainability on the other.
Taken from: Lamichhane, J.R., Dachbrodt-Saaydeh, S., Kudsk, P., Messéan, A. (2016). Towards a reduced reliance on conventional pesticides in European agriculture. Plant Dis. 100: 10-24. DOI: 10.1094/PDIS-05-15-0574-FE.
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