PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Crop protection is critical to ensure a good supply of agricultural production, in particular high-quality food and livestock feed. Today, modern farming and agricultural supply chains largely depend on chemical pesticides which are, at present, the cornerstone of cropping systems in Europe and around the world. As a result, agriculture has become wedded to pesticides, which in addition to their well-documented negative impacts on the environment and human health, are becoming increasingly ineffective in the face of pesticide resistance to major pests and pathogens.
Pesticides are addressed by policies at both European Union (EU) and EU Member State (MS) level. The EU Green Deal and Farm to Fork Strategy set ambitious targets to reduce the risk and use of pesticides, especially those containing the most dangerous compounds. A key contribution to reducing the risk and use of pesticides comes from integrated pest management (IPM), where chemical pest control is limited to cases where alternatives (such as pest prevention, monitoring and biocontrol) are not sufficient. Since 2009, the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive (SUD) aims to reduce pesticide use by fostering IPM. A legal proposal to introduce both mandatory and optional farm-specific or crop-specific rules for IPM at national level was eventually abandoned.
Numerous IPM practices exist for a broad range of crops and farming systems. However, scaling up technical and organisational practices for IPM — and getting farmers to adopt them — has been difficult so far, mainly due to the lack of a coherent information system. Now, however, comes a significant opportunity to change current farming methods by demonstrating it is possible to reduce both the cost and the use of pesticides.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE AGROWISE preparatory project will develop guidelines for pesticide use that are specific to national contexts, as well as to specific crops. These guidelines are aimed to support the EU Member States to develop national rules on IPM, whilst aligning with the objective to reduce the risk and use of pesticides, and to maintain a high level of agricultural productivity and economic returns for farmers. It will do this in close collaboration with national authorities and all those involved with agricultural supply chains from the farmer to the consumer.
It will achieve this by:
- developing and delivering a methodology to support IPM across the EU Member States
- researching and documenting how IPM is practised on farms, its economic impact and its possible support through public policies such as the CAP
- adopting a collaborative approach to sharing knowledge, resources and recommendations with MS, national authorities, farmers’ organisations, civil society organisations and agriculture businesses subject to the regulations
- ensuring the results of the project are shared and used in the long-term
- providing the Commission with the means of assessing Member States’ progress in promoting IPM
RESULTS
The project’s expected results are:
- development of toolbox of good IPM practices for 1) temperate small grains including temporary grasslands and 2) perennial systems such as vineyards and orchards
- systematic and accurate documentation of EU-wide IPM practices
- systematic and accurate documentation of the economic impact of IPM
- review of the strengths and weaknesses of existing policy instruments for pesticide use across MS
- 10 expert workshops to co-design a set of rules for IPM for specific crops and national circumstances
- set of tailored recommendations to enhance IPM on grasslands and for major arable and perennial crops
- dynamic analytical methodology replicable for other crops and farming contexts
