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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EUCLID (EU-CHINA Lever for IPM Demonstration)

Teaser

Summary

For many years, society has enjoyed the benefits of using chemical pesticides to control weeds, arthropod pests and plant diseases in agriculture. However, continuous use of chemical pesticides during the past decades has proved a threat to both consumers and farmers health, as well as to the environment. The development of more environmentally-sound and sustainable pest management methods followed by their wide adoption by farmers would help reduce the negative effects of chemical pesticides on human health and would also help prevent the degradation of natural resources (in terms of reduction of the biodiversity, pollution of groundwater, etc.). In the context of global changes, EUCLIDâ€™s goal is to contribute to securing food production for the increasing worldwide population while developing sustainable production approaches to be used in European and Chinese agricultures. The goal is first to optimize, adapt and create new integrated pest management methods on tomato, grape and leafy vegetables crops. After developing the technologies, analysis of the benefits of optimized and innovative pest management solutions will be developed regarding the needs of different end-users (farmers, advisers, businesses and policy makers). This knowledge exchange will generate new insights and ideas while speeding knowledge towards practical and innovative solutions. In parallel, communication approaches and tools are chosen and adapted in order to efficiently target the concerned public.

Work performed

Since the beginning of the project, many objectives have been achieved with very promising results. Evaluation and optimisation of several commercially available biocontrol agents is being carried out. Commercially available cultivars of leafy vegetables (lettuce, wild and cultivated rocket) are being tested for their susceptibility to seed-transmitted Fusarium wilts in presence of natural and artificial inoculation under controlled conditions. Use of resistant cultivars is being studied as a strategy for limiting the incidence of Fusarium wilt of lettuce. Cultural practices and community ecology-based approaches are being evaluated for reducing pesticide applications. Interactions between several organisms are being studied paying attention to the potential effects on population dynamics of importance for structuring species community in ecosystems and optimizing IPM in agro-ecosystems. Studies on effectiveness and microbial diversity was also performed on compost, developed by project partner ANT, to be used to control tomato and leafy vegetablesâ€™ soil-borne diseases. Cultural practices were assessed alone and in combination (e.g. compost in association with BCAs, grafting, resistance inducers). Promising results have been found about the work on new macro BCAs, respectively on a new predatory bug against moth on tomato, on a new parasitoid of the tomato moth, on a ladybeetle against a key aphid and on a new predatory bug in tomato greenhouses. Significant efficiency of the ladybeetle released with two other parasitoÃ¯ds has been proven by partners in China showing a good potential for commercialisation of these BCAs against a key aphid and whiteflies. A high efficiency of botanical pesticides (EOs) have been proven against whiteflies and aphids on tomato crops, both at a laboratory and at a greenhouse scale. A high protective efficacy of spray application of ANT-Ca, a foliar formulation developed by project partner ANT, has been found against powdery mildew and grey mould on tomato and against powdery and downy mildew on grape. EUCLID has incorporated six key indicators and an overall performance comparator by which IPM solutions can be rated. IPM packages have been designed and applied in demonstration trials. Many field trials and field visits have been accomplished during this year allowing the spread of the technologies to end-users (see figure 1). Communication strategies have been consolidated through the use of dissemination tools regularly updated and distributed (i.e. website, flyers, poster presentations, publications).

Final results

Globalization and continuous arrival of invasive pests may lead to decreased crop yields. By developing cost-effective methods for management of key pests and invasive species, as well as promoting increased resilience of agriculture in a context of global warming, the EUCLID project is trying to help farmers to face current end upcoming agricultural threats. Moreover, biocontrol agents are usually not combined in an optimal way by farmers, for several reasons, mainly due to lack of scientific knowledge about complex mechanisms occurring among species in agro-ecosystems. EUCLID tackles this issue by enabling the development of BCA combinations that are both efficient and easily implementable by farmers. Existing high potential BCAs and plant protection tools are tested and optimized, so that they can be used in IPM strategies, ready for take-up by farmers and to be commercialized by companies. The project consortium is also working on new invasive species, providing new tools for biocontrol. The use of different types of macro-BCAs and micro-BCAs as well as techniques using resistance inducers or essential oils have been proven to be very efficient against many pest and pathogens of the tomato, the grapes and the leafy vegetables. Managing the landscape features in order to promote natural biocontrol has also been studied and some key levers identified as high potential for preservation and performance increase of naturally occurring BCAs. Building a network of policy-makersâ€™ involved in IPM policies in order to develop sound policies and meeting stakeholdersâ€™ needs is a key tool for reaching the expected project results; a significant impact can be reached in terms of promoting the dialogue at international level among policy makers on IPM especially at EU level, and by sharing it with China it can certainly support its impact on food security at global level, given the international scale of food trade. Involving big retailers (e.g. Carrefour) and reaching out to additional commercial actors (e.g. Bonduelle) might have a considerable socio-economic impact, given their global dimension, in terms of food security and economic benefits for IPM farmers, in EU and China. All in all, the EUCLID project will help increase product quality and lower the environmental impact by finding, improving and transferring methods for the use of IPM methods as cited above in the research and development WPs, with the goal of lowering pesticide residues in food products.