Assembly of European Horticultural Regions

EU projects

SmartProtect : a sustainable approach to IPM

As the global trend among food retailers gets very strict on chemical residues, building the best IPM programme possible is mandatory

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Nowadays there is greater control over conventional herbicides, fungicides and insecticides and the regulations are tightening. Thus “the future of integrated pest management (IPM) programmes will include the best tactics from a variety of approaches, including nutritional and natural technologies, allowing the producers to reduce inputs while maintaining crop quality and improving sustainability measures”.

 

As the global trend among food retailers gets very strict on chemical residues, building the best IPM programme (including all types of technologies) is mandatory. Healthy plants have a better chance of resisting disease pressures, and bioavailable micronutrients can support plants’ inherent defences.

Efficient crop management is moving towards more proactive management of inputs. Better nutrient management, especially nitrogen, is a key component of this movement and is crucial to sustainability. The focus is to reduce the amount of fertilizer applied to fields and hopefully improve the environment by minimizing the application of excess nitrogen.

Many European farmers are faced with soils that have been depleted after many years in production. These cannot always provide a perfect balance between exported nutrients and input fertilization. With a loss in organic matter and beneficial microbes, the soil is also losing its capacity to act as a buffer. The conservative and regenerative approaches to soil management are on the rise, and most farmers are implementing these IPM techniques.

 

To know more read the article of Fresh Plaza

 

Know more about SmartProtect

 

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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No. 862563.

 

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