Wageningen, The Netherlands
October 18, 2012
More than 150 participants from 25 countries discussed the principles of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) during the 10th conference of the European Foundation for Plant Pathology 'IPM 2.0 – Towards future-proof crop protection in Europe'. The conference took place 1-5 October 2012 in Wageningen, the Netherlands. It was the first multidisciplinary research conference on the new European Union (EU) policy to increase IPM in European member states via National Action Plans. Participants discussed a number of aspects of the implementation of IPM principles.
National and EU policy representatives outlined the aims of policy advisers and society with respect to sustainable crop protection, and how National Action Plans on the development of IPM would support this EU policy. ENDURE partners contributed, with Silke Dachbrodt-Saaydeh reviewing the state of the art of National Action Plans in the various member states (click here for abstract), and Pierre Ricci presenting the current research trends of the ENDURE foresight study (click here for abstract). Hence this first part provided a future research agenda to researchers in respect of preventive and cultural measures and the (restricted use) of pesticides.
The multidisciplinary group of researchers discussed what has already been established in various crops and cropping systems with regards to IPM tools and IPM implementation, and what socio-economic and technical constraints prevent the implementation of IPM at the farmers' level.
Researchers addressed promising future options based on advanced diagnostics, genomics, biocontrol, DSS and resistance breeding technologies. They concluded that these new areas need full attention, both from researchers and research funders, to facilitate significant breakthroughs enabling widespread and fully sustainable IPM in the near future.
All participants acknowledged the unique scope of this multidisciplinary conference as well as the perfect timing at the start of the ambitious implementation of the new EU policy on IPM until 2020. They all endorsed a proposal to follow-up after a few years to evaluate midway whether researchers have been successful in providing new IPM tools that support the EU policy. The organisers - Dutch Royal Netherlands Society of Plant Pathology and the European Foundation for Plant Pathology - declared their support in organising such a meeting in 2015 or 2016.
The full programme, abstracts, and pdfs of the presentations can be found on: http://www.efpp.net/IPM2/default.htm
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