The perception of IWM by experts and farmers have been mapped, and the results have aided the design of IWM strategies in the project. An IWM framework was developed based on the expertise in the project and further developed into an interactive tool, which is available online. This is a strong dissemination tool to underline the importance of diversity in management strategies in both annual and perennial crops. Traditional dissemination activities as conference presentations and scientific publications have been applied for communicating with the research community. Dissemination to agricultural advisors and farmers has included social media postings, open field days, inspirational sheets, tool sheets, booklets presenting the experimental work, an IPM board game and e-learning material.
The potential conflict between IWM and non-inversion tillage/conservation agriculture were addressed by studying the transition phase from conventional soil tillage to no-till agriculture and using an existing long-term trial to further extend the results after the transition phase. There are complex interactions at work in no-till systems that do indeed increase soil fertility, but affect the ability to manage weeds and maintain crop yield compared to tilled systems.
A large variety of weed management strategies and IPM measures have been evaluated in the four categories of crops included in the project; annual narrow row crops, annual wide row crops, herbaceous and woody perennial crops. The studies included existing knowledge and innovative approaches applied in different settings along a North-South gradient in Europe. In the project, the innovation hub investigated the opportunities to take technologies from testing stages to practical implementation. The short-term experimental trials provided valuable support for dissemination of IWM practices and supplied data for the long-term analyses of weed development and the related economic and environmental consequences for farmers.
Different modelling approaches to determine the long-term effects of cropping systems modifications were applied and a general conclusion was that the agricultural system had a strong influence on both the weed community and the productivity of the crop, and affected the efficacy of the various weed management practices. The consequences of replacing herbicides with non-chemical weed control measures in terms of environmental risk and demand for energy and labour input was evaluated. Analyses of multiple scenarios of landscape configuration and composition of different management strategies provided insight into the interactions between managing weeds for ecosystem services and weed harmfulness to crops both at the field and landscape scales.