One of the ambitious goals of the EU's Farm2Fork strategy is to reduce the use of pesticides by 50%. The expected increase in plant pests due to climate change, international trade and the intensification of food production systems offsets this target.
PurPest aims to control serious plant pests during import and manage pests in the field by enabling pest detection in a timely and non-invasive manner. The PurPest concept will exploit the specific volatiles released by pests or by pest infested plants to develop a sensor system prototype (SSP) that detects the presence of these pests during plant import and to monitor pests already present in Europe. Implementation of the PurPest concept is expected to drastically decrease the risk of new pest invasions into Europe and optimize pesticide use, where and when necessary. Additionally, the PurPest concept used in nurseries to detect serious pests will significantly reduce the distribution of pest infested plant material between exporting and importing countries and their further spread within these countries. PurPest will involve all stakeholders along the value chain in a multi-actor approach to promote this concept, including plant health officers, nursery representatives and forest organizations.
PurPest is focusing on five diverse pests in forestry, horticulture and agriculture; the forestry pathogen causing Sudden Oak Death, Phytophthora ramorum, the causal agent of Pine Wilt Disease, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, the Cotton Bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera, the Brown Marmorated Stinkbug, Halyomorpha halys and the EU A1 listed Fall Armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda. Implementation of the PurPest concept will be supported by developing policy recommendations in collaboration with the industry stakeholders, the plant pest scientists and legislators from the national plant protection organizations to ensure feasibility, economic and ecologic benefits and high efficiency of the SSP concept for plant health monitoring.
