The IPMWORKS H2020 project has staged a four-day exhibition at the European Parliament (EP) in Strasbourg to demonstrate the impact of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) on pest control to MEPs and the European Union Agricultural Commissioner. Entitled ‘Towards a Europe without pesticides within the framework of the European Green Deal and the reform of the SUD/SUR directive’, the event was supported by MEP Claude Gruffat (Greens, France).
During the exhibition, IPMWORKS brought together expert agronomists and farmers from across Europe to present the project´s results and good IPM practices to more than 40 MEPs from a wide range of countries and political groups.
The project reports that February’s exhibition “came at a crucial time when the EP is debating the reform of the Sustainable Use Directive with a proposal for a Regulation on the sustainable use of plant protection products (2021/2115) which includes IPM as the cornerstone in its implementation”.
IPMWORKS coordinator Nicolas Munier-Jolain (INRAE, France) told the project’s website: “IPMWORKS is working under the umbrella of the Farm to Fork Strategy, which targets a halving of pesticide use and impact. During the exhibition, we had a real opportunity to demonstrate that there are many alternatives to pesticides, that some pioneer farmers are using them successfully on their farms, with satisfying levels of pest control, productivity and profitability in spite of their reduced use of pesticides.”
The IPMWORKS exhibition also involved fellow H2020 project IPMDecisions, the International Biocontrol Manufacturers Association (IBMA) and IFOAM, the international organics organisation. It included more than 25 real-life examples of “how farmers are working to reduce or remove pesticides from their daily agricultural practices”.
IPMWORKS explains that its team of agronomic experts in pest control and a number of pioneer farmers from several European countries used the event to explain its ‘demonstration’ activities where farmers learn successfully from each other through peer to peer learning.
Exhibition organiser Alun Jones (CIHEAM, Spain), who heads the project’s policy work package, said he was satisfied with the results of the exhibition. He told the project’s website: “A clear outcome was that we need to accompany farmers in the transition towards a targeted and stepwise reduction in pesticides use in farming. This can only come if we are able to significantly scale up such peer to peer demo activities. This would need significant support from the CAP for demo activities or even from a dedicated funding stream for the ‘IPM transition of conventional agriculture’ in order to ensure real impact at the farm level.”
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