All the news

• AgriLink: Take the course, explore the abstracts
  

  Following its final online conference, the AgriLink project officially comes to an end this month, leaving behind a legacy of useful tools and information. The project, dedicated to ‘Linking farmers, advisers and researchers to boost innovation’, has produced 86 practice abstracts, with another 12 due to come, and also offers a free online course for advisers focused on creating innovative agricultural advisory services through a Living Lab.

• ReMIX: Play the game!
  

  A range of resources is now available from the ReMIX website. The latest addition to the project’s website is a serious game called Interplay, which is designed to help players explore the ecosystem services provided by cereal-legume intercropping options.

• DiverIMPACTS: Conference and videos
  

  The DiverIMPACTS project (Diversification through Rotation, Intercropping, Multiple Cropping, Promoted with Actors and value-Chains Towards Sustainability) is to hold a conference next year. The event, being held on 29 March 2022 in Brussels, Belgium, will focus on ‘Learning from systems approaches implemented in DiverIMPACTS to support the agro-ecological transition of agri-food systems.’

• New focus on emerging viral diseases
  

  A new Horizon 2020 project is underway to address viral diseases responsible for major crop losses in tomatoes and cucurbits in Europe and beyond. Called ‘VIRTIGATION – Emerging viral diseases in tomatoes and cucurbits: Implementation of mitigation strategies for durable disease management’, the project includes INRAE, one of ENDURE’s French partners, Germany’s Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) and Wageningen University (WU) and Stichting Wageningen Research (WR) from the Netherlands.

• New project to tackle Scotland’s PCN threat
  

  Scotland’s James Hutton Institute is to play a central role in a project to tackle potato cyst nematodes (PCN), a pest threatening the viability of the country’s valuable seed potato and bulb production sectors.

• New stations to boost practical relevance
  

  Agroscope, ENDURE’s Swiss partner, is launching four new experimental stations as part of its strategy to strengthen research and its practical relevance. “The aim of the experimental stations is to answer applied research questions in their respective geographic contexts, in close cooperation with the agricultural sector and with partners in education and training as well as extension,” explains Agroscope.

• Potato developments at James Hutton Institute
  

  There have been major developments in potato research at Scotland’s James Hutton Institute (JHI). A team working with international colleagues has identified “previously unexplored ways” Phytophthora infestans, responsible for several European potato famines, breaks through plant cell walls. In addition, JHI scientists have unveiled plans for a “Potato Innovation and Translation Hub: a centre of excellence to translate innovation and research into solutions for the potato industry”.

• Agricology: Resilience and systems approaches
  

  The latest edition of the Agricology newsletter focuses on “building resilience through growing more diverse, alternative crops, genetic diversity, working with nature to control weeds, varietal testing, and integrating trees into the farming system”. Agricology is an organisation which believes in “practical sustainable farming regardless of labels”.

• Key dates for BioProTech
  

  Early Bird pricing is available until November 1, 2021, for next year’s Plant BioProTech symposium in the French city of Reims. Potential speakers at the event have until October 4 this year to submit abstracts.

• Healthy interest in innovation vouchers
  

  Wageningen University & Research (WUR) has reported healthy interest in its innovation voucher system, a scheme which provides applicants with the possibility of testing an innovation or new technology for circular agriculture through WUR’s Farm of the Future agroecological research project.