Support: ERANET Core-Organic Plus (CRA-W - Moerman part 30%, European part 70%).
Project Partners : 9 european countries. InHort, Poland, FiBL, Switzerland, INRA, France, GRAB, France, Julius Kühn-Institut, Germany, SLU, Sweden, VZ-Laimburg, Italy, Latvian Plant Protection Research Centre, Latvia, CRA-W, Belgium, EcoAdvice, Denmark
Project duration : 2015-2018
Main objective: Pest management in organic apple orchards - increasing functional agricultural biodiversity
Main project activities
1.To identify promising techniques, tools and monitoring protocols to improve management of functional biodiversity, which consistently enhance the performance of natural enemies, reduce pest pressure and are adapted to farmers' implementation.
2.To assess promising techniques, namely specific flora introduction to provide and optimize supplementary alternative food/prey for natural enemies, and specifically adapted habitat management.
3.To create a European-wide network of stakeholders for collecting, sharing and improving scientific and practical knowledge and experience in functional biodiversity management for resilient organic orchards.
4.To learn from a participatory approach about potential constraints that may hamper the adoption of innovative tools and how to solve these constraints by iterative re-evaluation.
