Supporting UPtake Integrated Pest Management and lOw-Risk pesTicide Use

Project Information

SUPPORT

Grant agreement ID: 101084527

DOI

10.3030/101084527

EC signature date 19 October 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 31 December 2026

Funded under

• Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

Total cost

€ 5 992 693,75

EU contribution

€ 5 992 693,75

Coordinated by

STICHTING WAGENINGEN RESEARCH
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SUPPORT (Supporting UPtake Integrated Pest Management and lOw-Risk pesTicide Use)

Reporting period: 2024-07-01 to 2025-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

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 of 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 will qualitatively analyse opportunities in the entire agrifood-chain for the adoption of IPM and will qualitatively and quantitatively analyse 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 development takes place in a co-creation process with stakeholders. Therefore, a multi-actor approach will be the backbone of the research process. 25 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.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The activities of SUPPORT in RP2 can be summarized as follows:

1. Development of a monitoring system containing indicators measuring the environmental, social and economic impact of the crop protection strategy.
2. Testing the monitoring system on the basis of future IPM strategies that have been developed by the NCCs.
3. Based on the conceptual framework identification of drivers and barriers of IPM adoption to understand the decision making process of the farmer about the application of IPM tools by:
a. Qualitative analysis of farmer decision making based on data collected by interviews with farmers and advisors;
b. Quantitative analysis of farmer decision making based on data collected by an survey among farmers, a choice experiment and a survey among participants of the FADN.
4. Co-creation workshops to develop policy and strategy recommendations to achieve transformative change.
5. Development of draft policy briefs containing policy recommendations, white papers and a roadmap for future policy making.

All activities make use of a multi-actor approach, organised in 25 National Crop Clusters and 9 Community of Practices, covering 8 crops in 10 countries.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The results of SUPPORT project comprise three components:

1. A monitoring system containing indicators measuring the environmental, social and economic impact of the crop protection strategy. This monitoring system enables stakeholders in general and farmers with their advisors in particular to optimize their crop protection strategy from an environmental, social and economic point of view.
2. Understanding of the decision making process of the farmer about the application of integrated pest management measures in their crop protection strategy. Four categories of drivers that can influence the decision making process will be distinguished:
a. Farmer specific behavioral factors such as preferences, goals, attitudes, networks;
b. Technical and economic properties of integrated pest management measures, such as availability and maturity of those measures, potential impacts on revenues, costs and risks;
c. Policy environment consisting of regulations, incentives, information provision and
d. Market environment: consumer demand, prices of alternatives etc.
3. A design of improved IPM policy. The monitoring system, a better understanding of the decision making process, and a policy analysis will be used to develop policy recommendations and a roadmap for future policy making.

Uptake of the results will take place in new IPM policies and regulations, both at the EU and member state level. Improved policy will result in a higher uptake of IPM in practice serving the interests and goals of farmers and other stakeholders in the supply chain. New opportunities will arise when the Commission will make new legislation implementing the F2F-strategy objectives for crop protection. Therefore, it will remain important that policy makers participate in co-creation activities of SUPPORT. Furthermore, the project team will proactively approach policy makers and public and private stakeholders in their environment to provide them with project results.