Promoting the agroecological transition to weed and pest management across Europe is the main ambition of the international GOOD project, coordinated by Helena Freitas, full professor at the Department of Life Sciences (DCV) at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra (FCTUC), which has just obtained 5 million euros in funding.
«By implementing a multidisciplinary approach, Agroecology for Weeds – GOOD intends to create, implement and evaluate practices, systems, and protocols for Agroecological Weed Management and demonstrate, under real conditions, how the adoption of this management can greatly reduce the use of synthetic herbicides, increase the sustainability, productivity and resilience of agricultural systems», explains the project coordinator, which involves more than a dozen European countries.
Currently, agricultural systems in the European Union (EU) are facing increasing sustainability and productivity challenges due to the impact of climate change on the entire agri-food value chain, aggravated by the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and, more recently, by geopolitical instabilities. These «are two factors that threaten the stability of the agricultural sector and emphasize the need for a change in the European agricultural perspective/agenda», observes Helena Freitas.
Weeds are considered one of the most important factors in determining the productivity, yield, and sustainability of agricultural production. Therefore, farmers rely heavily on herbicides due to their high efficacy against these harmful weeds and they constitute the second most sold pesticide category in the EU-27, representing, according to EUROSTAT, 35% of all pesticide sales in 2020.
Faced with this reality and recognizing the need to accelerate the transition to sustainable, safe, and healthy food systems, and to address the threat of the biodiversity crisis, several EU policy initiatives, including the EU Green Deal and its Farm to Fork (F2F) and Strategies of Biodiversity, set a goal to reduce the use of synthetic pesticides by 50% by 2030. These initiatives will be transposed into the Strategic Plans of the Member States of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) through eco-schemes.
«According to the new proposal on the sustainable use of pesticides, the focus should be directed towards promoting the adoption of alternative methods of controlling weeds», considers the researcher, adding that, by doing so, «it is establishing for the first time a strong initiative to reach the ambitious objectives of the European Commission (EC) with legally binding targets for the reduction of pesticides in the EU».
In addition, and according to the FCTUC professor, the concomitant socioeconomic aspects involving weed management, simultaneously with the role of farmers in decision-making, public concern with the use and resistance to pesticides, food safety, issues General human health issues and resulting government regulations call for reducing over-reliance on herbicides and developing alternative system approaches using preventative, mechanical, cultural and biological strategies combined with precision farming tools in the context of Agroecological Weed Management.
With an expected duration of four years, this project will develop an Agroecological Network that encompasses an ecosystem of 16 Living Labs (LLs), with the intention of improving knowledge co-creation, farmers’ decision-making, and end-user acceptance of approaches. This management network will be both a physical network of LLs, allowing users and partners to share knowledge and experiences, and a digital network of all relevant actors across the agri-food value chain, creating links with other projects and networks that operate in the field of Agroecology and Pest Management.
To achieve this final objective, the new project proposes several solutions focused on «the use of cover crops in all laboratories and the increase of their competitive capacity against weeds through inoculation with beneficial microorganisms, the combination of cover crops with other methods of Agroecological Management and digital solutions in an integrated scheme to reduce the pressure of pests and the use of herbicides in the 16 LLs», concludes the researcher.
Coordinated by the FCTUC Functional Ecology Center, GOOD is a Horizon Europe project and involves, in addition to Portugal, countries such as France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Ireland, Belgium, Latvia, the Netherlands, Serbia and Cyprus.
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