Skip to main content
EnglishEN
European Commission logo print header

Supporting UPtake Integrated Pest Management and lOw-Risk pesTicide Use

Project description

DEENESFRITPL

Supporting integrated pest management to make crop protection more sustainable

Plant pests, weeds and diseases can pose a huge economic burden to farmers and threaten food security by destroying crops. Farmers apply chemical pesticides to protect their crops. Today’s question is how to reduce dependency on and the use of chemical pesticides to protect the environment. For this purpose integrated pest management (IPM) programmes have been developed. However, the uptake of IPM practices remains low. The EU-funded SUPPORT project will analyse the decision-making process to identify barriers and opportunities in the entire agrifood chain related to the adoption of IPM. On the basis of these results, the project will develop new strategies and policies enabling and supporting farmers and other stakeholders to apply IPM.

Objective

Research has shown that well-designed integrated pest management programmes (IPM) are a viable solution to reduce the dependency on use of chemical pesticides. However, the uptake of IPM practices by farmers remains low, creating a challenge to support adoption of those techniques. This requires thorough understanding of the decision-making process of farmers and other involved stakeholders in order to improve strategies and policies that enables and stimulates the application of IPM. SUPPORT responds to this challenge by increasing the capacity to understand the environmental, social and economic impacts of existing and future crop protection systems in which IPM is applied, by creation of an inventory of IPM tools and techniques and the development an impact monitoring system. Farmers behave in an economic, social and institutional environment. SUPPORT will identify barriers and opportunities in the entire agrifood-chain for the adoption of IPM and analyse qualitatively and quantitatively their role in farmer decision-making. Data will be collected by interviews, surveys, choice experiments and derived from the FADN. The results of this analysis will be used as a basis for the development of strategies and policies enabling and supporting farmers and other stakeholders to apply IPM. The develop takes place in a co-creation process with stakeholders. Therefore, a multi-actor approach will be the backbone of the research process. 26 National Crop Clusters (NCCs) will be used for data collection. In 9 of those NCCs, Community of Practices (CoPs) will be developed with public and private stakeholders to co-create strategies and policies. The CoPs will be embedded in a Network of Practice (NoP), an overarching platform connecting all stakeholders. This NoP will be used to communicate, discuss and disseminate results of SUPPORT with the entire community of stakeholders in the EU.

Fields of science

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Call for proposal

HORIZON-CL6-2022-FARM2FORK-01

See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-AG - HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based

Coordinator

STICHTING WAGENINGEN RESEARCH
Net EU contribution
€ 1 351 530,00
Address
Droevendaalsesteeg 4
6708 PB Wageningen
Netherlands

See on map
Region
Oost-Nederland Gelderland Veluwe
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Other funding
€ 0,00

Participants (18)

Partners (1)

Share this page

Download

EC signature date 19 October 2022
Last update: 24 October 2022

My Booklet

Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101084527

European Union, 2023