30 - Foundations of plant protection and health

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Objective

The primary aim is to provide safe, cost-effective and applied methods to protect crops and seed production from harmful organisms and economically significant yield and quality losses. This is achieved by consistently applying the principles of the plant protection pyramid. Solutions for acute problems are worked out as quickly as possible. The development of agroecosystems which can manage almost entirely without direct plant is pursued as medium- and long-term goals.

• Specific objectives

  • Understand the biology and epidemiology of important plant diseases, pests, weeds and vectors with the aim of identifying and developing approaches to regulating them throughout the plant protection pyramid. Selection is based on the economic impact; prioritisation is based on practice and the need for relevant knowledge growth (see detailed list of priority harmful organisms).
  • Develop and/or adapt alternative plant protection products and techniques such as micro- and macro-organisms, natural and nature-identical substances, green chemistry, pheromones or physical methods (e.g. traps, nets, vibration disruption).
  • Develop methods for herbicide-free weed control in crop rotations and ecological areas.
  • Monitor pests, alien species/emerging pests/diseases for early detection and develop containment/control strategies (research to support enforcement activities)
  • Further develop methods to control diseases transmitted though seed and plant material (industrial methods such as steam treatment or high-throughput (real-time) diagnostics)
  • Further develop and operate the Agrometeo+ platform with forecasting systems and monitoring tools in collaboration with research and agricultural extension
  • Provide enforcement tools/implementation aids (advisory documentation for plant protection products, review and updating of damage thresholds in field crops and speciality crops, quality assurance of spray tests by the Swiss Agricultural Machinery Association)
  • Contribute to the medium-term development of sustainable agroecosystems which can manage almost entirely without direct plant protection as part of the European Research Alliance ‘Towards a chemical pesticide-free agriculture’.
  • Develop effective control measures against pests in seed production.
  • Develop alternative methods of pest and disease control for warehousing.
  • Verify the efficacy of promising PPPs to speed up application processing and close indicator gaps.

Expected outcomes

Crop protection is achieved/ensured with the aid of innovative solutions, taking into account climate change and the targets of the PPP National Action Plan. Post-harvesting food loss/waste is cut by 50%.

Projects

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