Low-Residue Fruit Production – Model Systems for Improving Integrated Plant Protection
Today’s fruit producers are facing major challenges. Retailers and consumers alike are demanding high-quality, healthy, low-residue and inexpensive foods, produced in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. Under the current and future framework conditions, the fruit-production sector is virtually unable to meet these demands.
The aim of the project is to highlight new ways of producing high-quality, healthy and largely residue-free fruit whilst measurably reducing the use of plant-protection products. In model systems, promising cultivation and plant-protection strategies are combined and refined in such a way that measurably lower quantities of environmentally critical PPPs are used than is the case with common Integrated Production (IP) and Organic (ORG) standards, and no residues remain on the fruit. Here, fruit producers in the Lake Constance economic zone are assuming a cross-boundary pioneering role, called upon to make their mark in a market with falling prices and high economic risks through environmentally friendly, innovative and economical methods of production whilst maintaining high internal and external fruit quality.
Firstly, it is a question here of testing measures for reducing the use of plant-protection products, such as variety selection, crop management, the use of protection and cover systems, a combination of insect netting and disruption techniques, mechanical and thermal methods as a substitute for herbicides, as well as the use of beneficials and the encouragement of natural antagonists.
Secondly, new strategies are undergoing economic evaluation: individual measures and combinations of different strategies are assessed from an economic perspective with a cost-benefit and profitability analysis, and compared with typical IP and organic standards.
Project Partners
- Kompetenzzentrum Obstbau Bodensee [=Lake Constance Centre of Excellence for Fruit Production] KOB, Bavendorf (Germany)
- University of Weihenstephan-Triesdorf HSWT, Schlachters Experimental Station, Sigmarszell (Germany)
- Landwirtschaftliches Technologiezentrum Augustenberg [= Agricultural Research Institute LTZ Augustenberg], Karlsruhe (Germany)
- Vorarlberg Chamber of Agriculture, Bregenz (Austria)
- Agroscope, Wädenswil site (Switz.)
- Agridea, Plant Production Division, Lindau (Switz.)
- Canton of St. Gallen, Agricultural Centre of St. Gallen LZSG, Flawil (Switz.)
- anton of Thurgau, Arenenberg Agricultural Education and Advisory Centre BBZ, Salenstein (Switz.)
Funding
The project is financially supported by the Interreg Alpenrhein-Bodensee-Hochrhein programme, with funding from the European Union and the Swiss Confederation.
