Periodic Reporting for period 3 - IPMWORKS (An EU-wide farm network demonstrating and promoting cost-effective IPM strategies)
Reporting period: 2023-10-01 to 2025-03-31
The Farm-to-Fork strategy set the target of halving pesticide use and impact in agriculture by 2030. Reducing pesticide use is possible, but difficult, since many farmers already consider to apply pesticides only when justified. However, some pioneer farmers have succeeded in reducing pesticide inputs by implementing a holistic vision of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). The core of IPMWORKS is to coordinate such pioneer farms in an EU-wide network and to organise demonstration events based on successful implementation of holistic IPM in real commercial farms, trying to convince the whole farming community that reduced reliance on chemical pesticides is possible.
Many farmers motivated by sustainable farming are still not fully implementing holistic IPM, as a consequence of decades of agriculture intensification with chemicals. IPMWORKS aims at helping farmers who joined the network to progress towards holistic IPM, hence offering a wider range of “success stories in IPM adoption” to support demo activities. IPMWORKS suggested a specific methodology, based on hubs of farms from the same region, sharing the same crops, the same pest problems and the same motivation to overcome these problems. Hubs are facilitated by ‘hub coaches’, helping farmers to find their own site-specific solutions and fostering peer-to-peer knowledge sharing about the functioning of agroecosystems. Hub coaches and farmers form a European community, along with 5 national pre-existing networks affiliated to IPMWORKS.
Many farmers motivated by sustainable farming are still not fully implementing holistic IPM, as a consequence of decades of agriculture intensification with chemicals. IPMWORKS aims at helping farmers who joined the network to progress towards holistic IPM, hence offering a wider range of “success stories in IPM adoption” to support demo activities. IPMWORKS suggested a specific methodology, based on hubs of farms from the same region, sharing the same crops, the same pest problems and the same motivation to overcome these problems. Hubs are facilitated by ‘hub coaches’, helping farmers to find their own site-specific solutions and fostering peer-to-peer knowledge sharing about the functioning of agroecosystems. Hub coaches and farmers form a European community, along with 5 national pre-existing networks affiliated to IPMWORKS.
The IPMWORKS network recruited 22 Hub Coaches and 250 farmers at the beginning of the project, covering 16 countries. The work started with the capacity building for Hub Coaches, both on the technical aspects of IPM, and on ‘soft skills’ for promoting changes in pest management strategies within groups of farmers. The daily functioning of the network is based on a series of tools, including an internal newsletter, a WhatsApp group allowing Hub Coaches to share experiences and tips, the Hub Journal (an Excel file used for reporting hub activities - meetings, discussions, and demo events), and an information system dedicated to the description of IPM-based management, including functionalities to compute indicators of pesticide use, pesticide impact, and of economic performances. During the project’s lifetime, IPMWORKS also developed an IPM Resource Toolbox providing an easy access to any IPM-related digital resource available in Europe.
The IPMWORKS consortium agreed on a definition of a holistic approach to IPM, targeting healthy crops with a limited reliance on chemical pesticides, hence providing a safer environment with enhanced biodiversity, limiting the risk for developing resistant biotypes of pests, while ensuring farm’s economic profitability. According to this holistic approach, the practical implementation is based on five pillars: (i) the landscape management to attract beneficial organisms and reduce pest pressure; (ii) the cropping system redesign (with long crop rotations, resistant cultivars, etc.) to decrease pest pressure; (iii) the preferential use of non-chemical control methods; (iv) the optimisation of decision making for treatments, to avoid unnecessary ones; and (v) the use of technologies to maximise treatment efficiency, by minimising the amount of chemicals applied without affecting the efficacy.
The routine functioning of IPMWORKS hubs includes regular meetings for knowledge sharing among farmers, facilitated by the hub coach, and co-innovation workshops based on discussions among farmers, eventually involving external expertise and visits of experimental sites. Cross-visits of IPMWORKS farmers to other hubs contributed to the inspiration for innovative IPM-based solutions, and to the co-innovation process. 250 demo events were organised along the course of the project, corresponding to about 12.000 visitors in IPMWORKS farms implementing holistic IPM. Hubs produced a large number of dissemination resources, including videos accessible through the IPMWORKS YouTube channel, and booklets presenting successful individual IPM strategies.
Three surveys were conducted among IPMWORKS farmers. A first survey collected information about IPM strategies and pesticide use, and a self-assessment of economic performances. This survey demonstrated that being aware of IPM and combining solutions in a holistic IPM-based strategy tends to reduce the reliance on pesticides. A second survey collected details of cropping systems to compute indicators of pesticide use and impacts, of workloads and of farm profitability. This provided evidence that those farms who succeeded in reducing pesticide use through holistic IPM had similar profitability indicators to other farms of the region, more reliant on chemicals for pest management. Finally, a last survey assessed progresses made in IPM adoption during the course of the project, and concluded that the reduction in pesticide use had no negative impact on the farmer’s assessment of yields and profitability (and often did not imply any increase in workload, with differences across sectors). These results clearly support the conclusion that reducing pesticide use and pesticide impact through holistic IPM is possible without impairing farm productivity and profitability.
Along the course of the project, IPMWORKS had a vibrant communication, based on a lively website, social medias, leaflets, booklets, factsheets, two international Conferences, several technical seminars, and a dense training program (53 training events in 21 countries), making use of e-learning modules prepared during the project (43 videos, 12 hours of e-learning). E-learning modules address all aspect of IPM, including the policy context and EU regulations, technical aspects, and soft skills for the promotion of IPM according to the IPMWORKS methodology. IPMWORKS also produced methodological documents, that will be an important legacy for the future.
Finally, IPMWORKS contributed actively to the policy debates about the proposal for a Regulation on Sustainable Use of Pesticides (SUR) in 2023. IPMWORKS published policy briefs and Policy recommendations for the SUR, was invited twice for hearings at the European Parliament (EP), had an exhibition at the EP for informing MEPs, and organised a number of events with a diversity of stakeholders to discuss about the potential for reducing pesticide use, and the consequences for food security and sovereignty.
The IPMWORKS consortium agreed on a definition of a holistic approach to IPM, targeting healthy crops with a limited reliance on chemical pesticides, hence providing a safer environment with enhanced biodiversity, limiting the risk for developing resistant biotypes of pests, while ensuring farm’s economic profitability. According to this holistic approach, the practical implementation is based on five pillars: (i) the landscape management to attract beneficial organisms and reduce pest pressure; (ii) the cropping system redesign (with long crop rotations, resistant cultivars, etc.) to decrease pest pressure; (iii) the preferential use of non-chemical control methods; (iv) the optimisation of decision making for treatments, to avoid unnecessary ones; and (v) the use of technologies to maximise treatment efficiency, by minimising the amount of chemicals applied without affecting the efficacy.
The routine functioning of IPMWORKS hubs includes regular meetings for knowledge sharing among farmers, facilitated by the hub coach, and co-innovation workshops based on discussions among farmers, eventually involving external expertise and visits of experimental sites. Cross-visits of IPMWORKS farmers to other hubs contributed to the inspiration for innovative IPM-based solutions, and to the co-innovation process. 250 demo events were organised along the course of the project, corresponding to about 12.000 visitors in IPMWORKS farms implementing holistic IPM. Hubs produced a large number of dissemination resources, including videos accessible through the IPMWORKS YouTube channel, and booklets presenting successful individual IPM strategies.
Three surveys were conducted among IPMWORKS farmers. A first survey collected information about IPM strategies and pesticide use, and a self-assessment of economic performances. This survey demonstrated that being aware of IPM and combining solutions in a holistic IPM-based strategy tends to reduce the reliance on pesticides. A second survey collected details of cropping systems to compute indicators of pesticide use and impacts, of workloads and of farm profitability. This provided evidence that those farms who succeeded in reducing pesticide use through holistic IPM had similar profitability indicators to other farms of the region, more reliant on chemicals for pest management. Finally, a last survey assessed progresses made in IPM adoption during the course of the project, and concluded that the reduction in pesticide use had no negative impact on the farmer’s assessment of yields and profitability (and often did not imply any increase in workload, with differences across sectors). These results clearly support the conclusion that reducing pesticide use and pesticide impact through holistic IPM is possible without impairing farm productivity and profitability.
Along the course of the project, IPMWORKS had a vibrant communication, based on a lively website, social medias, leaflets, booklets, factsheets, two international Conferences, several technical seminars, and a dense training program (53 training events in 21 countries), making use of e-learning modules prepared during the project (43 videos, 12 hours of e-learning). E-learning modules address all aspect of IPM, including the policy context and EU regulations, technical aspects, and soft skills for the promotion of IPM according to the IPMWORKS methodology. IPMWORKS also produced methodological documents, that will be an important legacy for the future.
Finally, IPMWORKS contributed actively to the policy debates about the proposal for a Regulation on Sustainable Use of Pesticides (SUR) in 2023. IPMWORKS published policy briefs and Policy recommendations for the SUR, was invited twice for hearings at the European Parliament (EP), had an exhibition at the EP for informing MEPs, and organised a number of events with a diversity of stakeholders to discuss about the potential for reducing pesticide use, and the consequences for food security and sovereignty.
IPMWORKS has achieved all its scheduled working plan. Of course, there is still a long way to make holistic IPM widespread in all European farms. IPMWORKS made the Proof-of-Concept, by demonstrating how an approach based on peer-to-peer knowledge exchange is efficient to make motivated farmers change their farming practices. However, the full expected impact of the IPMWORKS approach will require a continuation and the wide extension of the IPMWORKS network, that should cover all European regions with a grid of at least 2.000 more demonstration farms. A strategy for long term sustainability has been elaborated, based on a separate funding of each individual hub, and a specific European funding of the network coordination. However, the funding for the continuation of a coordination of the IPMWORKS network at EU level has not yet been identified.