EU-China joint action to increase development and adoption of IPM tools

The continuous stream of invasive agricultural pests and chronic re-emergence of key ones prompt for implementation of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) tools, but often main management methods rely largely on chemical pesticides. However, their widespread use is highlighted as a key threat to human health and wildlife. Much progress made in the conception of IPM tools in the past decade however, despite EU and Chinese policies prompting use of IPM, widespread adoption by farmers is slowed down by key barriers, notably because many available non-chemical IPM tools (a) have not been optimized (lack reliability or effectiveness), (b) are sub-optimal when combined together in IPM packages as not developed via an integrated approach, and (c) are missing for particular key pests. In this context the project will exploit the thorough knowledge accumulated on pest management methods to adapt and optimize IPM tools and practices which did not reach the field/market yet, or that are currently not efficient enough. In addition, ADOPT-IPM will work on the further development of high potential IPM tools, and will design optimized cost-effective environment-sound IPM packages. The choice of crops and pests in ADOPT-IPM (tomato, leafy vegetables, wheat, and maize) is based on their economic importance in Europe and China and for their current pest management methods relying largely on chemical pesticides. The project is structured in 3 R&D WPs, one for field demonstrations, one for dissemination and one for project management. The consortium has been selected to integrate early in the research process the main end-users of the project’s results (farmers associations, SMEs and key stakeholders). The EU-China consortium also has a strong coverage of experts (and based on many long-term collaborations), to take advantage of the experience of each region and to more efficiently adapt the IPM tools, practices and packages to the specific problems of European and Chinese farmers.