Supporting UPtake Integrated Pest Management and lOw-Risk pesTicide Use
Background
Agricultural policies in Switzerland and the EU aim at a substantial reduction of pesticide use and associated risks in crop production. However, effective crop protection against pests, pathogens and weeds is viable for productive and economically reasonable production systems. Therefore, farmers need efficient and more sustainable alternatives to successfully reduce pesticides and at the same time maintain quantity and quality of crops. One approach is the concept of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which is essentially based on eight principles including prevention, monitoring and non-chemical methods (Barzman et al. 2015). The concept has been proposed decades ago and is nowadays fostered by policies in many European countries including Switzerland.
Yet, the current uptake of IPM measures by farmers still remains unsatisfactory low, especially if ambitious pesticide use risk targets shall be reached. Moreover, it remains an open question what technologies and innovations are needed and how can IPM adoption be encouraged by policies and industries.
The research project SUPPORT (Supporting UPtake Integrated Pest Management and lOw-Risk pesTicide Use), funded by the program Horizon Europe, addresses these open points and aims to shed light on the drivers and barriers of IPM adoption. To this end, the project addresses 25 different cropping systems in 11 European countries (incl. Switzerland). The project period is four years, lasting from January 2023 until December 2026.
Objectives
The overarching goal of SUPPORT is to pave the way for adoption and wider spread of IPM instruments and technologies in farming systems in the EU and Switzerland. To this end, relevant scientific findings that can be implemented in the agricultural practice are elaborated, and strategies for policy and the private sector are developed together with the stakeholders involved. This enables policymakers and private industry actors to create effective and efficient incentives and eliminate existing barriers of IPM adoption. The findings will contribute to the scientific literature and will be published in respective journals.
The work in the project is divided into six interrelated work packages. The first three packages deal with developing a comprehensive inventory of IPM tools, understanding farmers’ decision-making related to IPM adoption and elaborating policy instruments and strategies to support the process. The other work packages enable the active involvement of stakeholders, coordinate project communication and manage the organization of the project.
Project Partners
SUPPORT is a transdisciplinary project involving 20 organisations, among them research institutions and stakeholder associations in 10 EU countries and Switzerland. The involved research partners are: ETH Zurich, Wageningen Research and Wageningen University (coordinator), Aarhus University, Leibniz-Zentrum Fuer Agrarlandforschung, Universitatea De Stiinte Agronomice Si Medicina Veterinara Din Bucuresti, Instytut Ogrodnictwa - Panstwowy Instytut Badawczy, Julius Kuhn-Institut Bundesforschungsinstitut Fur Kulturpflanzen, Consiglio Per La Ricerca In Agricoltura E L'analisi Dell'economia Agraria, Agricultural University of Athens.
Research of the AECP Group of ETH Zürich
In the Agricultural Economics and Policy Group at ETH Zürich (AECP), we are co-leading work package 2 about farmers’ decision-making underlying IPM adoption. The main goals of this work package are to 1) develop a framework to assess farmers’ behavior and identify opportunities and barriers for adoption of IPM and 2) conduct qualitative and quantitative analyses of farmers’ IPM adoption, barriers, opportunities and drivers. The latter is based on different data collection methods, namely a large-scale online survey among farmers in all countries, qualitative interviews with farmers and stakeholders, choice experiments and an additional survey with FADN farms in some of the participating countries. In the AECP group, we design and conduct the large-scale online survey with a special focus on current IPM adoption and farmers’ individual behavioral characteristics such as personal goals, perceptions, risk preferences and non-cognitive skills.
The collected empirical data will serve as basis of several scientific studies addressing different research questions in the international and national (Swiss) context. Besides comparative analyses looking at the current level of IPM adoption in the involved countries, a specific focus is on the role of behavioral factors as potential drivers and barriers of IPM adoption.
Contact
For the AECP Group: Prof. Robert Finger ().
Project Website: HE Support | Supporting Uptake Integrated Pest Management and Low-Risk pesTicide Use (he-support.eu)
Publications
Finger, R., Sok, J., Ahovi, E., Akter, S., Bremmer, J., Dachbrodt-Saaydeh, S., de Lauwere, C. Kreft, C., Kudsk, P., Lambarraa-Lehnhardt, F., McCallum, C., Oude Lansink, A., Wauters, E., Möhring, N. (2024). Towards sustainable crop protection in agriculture: A framework for research and policy. Agricultural Systems, 219, 104037.external page >>
Blogs
Blog-post 20 June 2023 external page SUPPORT
Nachhaltiger Pflanzenschutz in der Landwirtschaft: Grundlagen für Politik und Forschung external page https://agrarpolitik-blog.com/2024/07/25/nachhaltiger-pflanzenschutz-in-der-landwirtschaft-grundlagen-fur-politik-und-forschung/