More than 40 participants from 16 countries tackled the topic ‘Crop and Sector Specific Guidelines for Integrated Plant Protection’, the theme of May’s 4th International Symposium ‘Plant Protection and Plant Health in Europe (PPPHE)’ in Berlin, Germany.
The event was organised by the German Phytomedical Society (DPG) in co-operation with the Faculty of Agriculture and Horticulture of the Humboldt University Berlin and ENDURE partner the Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI).
Presentations from Germany, Serbia, Poland and Austria, the OECD Working Group on Pesticides and from CABI, the science-based development and information organisation, COPA-COGECA, the European farmers’ and cooperatives’ organisation, and agri-business Syngenta about Integrated Pest Management (IPM) guidelines or related themes demonstrated different points of view.
In Germany such guidelines will be developed primarily from the bottom up as they will be designed by farmers’ organisations. A top-down strategy via agri-environmental programmes will be preferred in Austria. But all participants agreed that crop and sector specific IPM guidelines must be more precise than the eight general principles of IPM described in Annex III of the Sustainable Use Directive (2008/128/EU), which will become mandatory from January 2014.
There was no doubt amongst symposium delegates that the voluntary use of IPM guidelines in farming practice will need incentives, additional extension services and - more importantly - appropriate knowledge, measures, tools and strategies to solve plant protection problems efficiently, cost-effectively and - if manageable – highly ecologically.
ENDURE attended this symposium and gave three presentations about its role as a European network to support national action plans and IPM in all member states, and to present relevant tools: ENDURE Information Centre (ENDURE IC), EuroWheat, IPM Training Guide and ENDURE Network of Advisors (ENA).
During a short ENDURE IC desk training, participants were given the chance to search for specific IPM solutions. The feedback was predominantly positive, and should encourage ENDURE to speed up dissemination of the ENDURE IC (and other tools) beyond its members.
A wealth of presentations at the symposium can be viewed on the German Phytomedical Society website.
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