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Crop protection in prevailing agricultural systems in the EU is highly dependent on plant protection products (PPPs) to protect plants against harmful weeds, pests and diseases. The use of PPPs is a cause of health, environmental and public concerns, and a key question is whether their use can be reduced while maintaining adequate yields. This study provides an overview and description of current and new crop protection practices, including mechanical techniques, plant breeding, biocontrol, induced resistance, applying ecological principles, precision agriculture (PA), and emerging plant protection products. The potential and impact of the new crop protection practices is assessed. It may be feasible to design resilient systems that are economically viable, have limited environmental impact and help improve biodiversity. Diverse cropping systems would have a natural resilience to weeds, pests, and diseases, and potentially reduce the dependency on PPPs, enabled by PA technologies. The main challenge is to integrate new varieties, mechanisation, and biocontrol tools in these systems. Continuous development of all crop protection practices is needed to ensure sufficient control of pests, weeds and diseases. The drivers and enablers for implementing alternative crop protection practices are identified, and an analysis of key legislation to support their use is presented.

The overall objective of the future of crop protection project is to present an overview of crop protection options for European farmers, which might enable them to work sustainably while securing food production, preserving biodiversity and supporting farmers' incomes. The policy options proposed are based on an assessment of current and emerging crop protection practices and their impact on the common agricultural policy (CAP) objectives. This overview shows that several crop protection practices are under continuous development and have potential to improve future crop protection in Europe. The likelihood that policy options can be successfully implemented depends upon the extent to which they are consistent with the interests of stakeholder groups. These include farmers, suppliers, supply chain partners, consumers and NGOs defending societal interests. Furthermore, it is important that crop protection policy options are embedded in a systems perspective. This should include related areas, such as phytosanitary policy, the entire crop production system, the supply chain, and international trade relationships – which need to be in harmony with the crop protection policy. For each of the crop protection practices, different policy options are proposed together with an impact assessment.

One way of avoiding societal rejection of crop protection practices is to design them in line with stakeholders’ priorities and preferences. This report describes the involvement in crop protection and the opinions regarding the use of plant protection products (PPPs) for the following stakeholder groups: (1) the stakeholders who primarily look at crop protection from a consumption perspective (i.e. consumers, retailers and the food industry), (2) the stakeholders who look at crop protection from a production perspective (i.e. farmers and growers), (3) the stakeholders who look at crop protection from a supply chain perspective (i.e. crop protection industry, plant breeders and other suppliers), and (4) the stakeholders who look at crop protection from a societal perspective (i.e. citizens and NGOs). Four explorative scenarios were developed that look at ways in which existing and emerging crop protection practices might be combined to ensure plant pests and diseases are effectively controlled. These scenarios were discussed in a brainstorming meeting with relevant stakeholders. For each scenario, the potential implications of the crop protection practices for different stakeholder groups (farmers, consumers, industry, NGOs) as well as the identification of their hopes and fears (i.e. potential positive as well as negative knock-on effects) were identified.

The effect of exposure to ambient air of MoS2-based, -Al2O3-supported, hydrodesulfurization (HDS) catalysts has been studied using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Analysis of unpromoted as well as Ni- and Co-promoted MoS2 samples showed that the number of MoS2 slabs and the average slab length decreased as a function of air exposure time. A parallel X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) study showed this effect to be due to oxidation. During the first 24 h of exposure to air, all 1 bar sulfided (Ni/Co)MoS2 samples showed an initial slab length decrease of around 20%. After an additional month in air, the slabs had deteriorated significantly further. A sample of CoMoS2 sulfided at 30 bar showed a slightly enhanced effect of oxidation, particularly after the first 5 minutes in air. The combined HRTEM and XPS results lead to the proposal of the formation of a protective oxide ring around the remaining sulfidic species inside the MoS2 slabs to explain the mechanism of this oxidation process. The data obtained in this study emphasize the general necessity of shielding vulnerable catalyst samples from air during preparation and characterization, a message relevant in all fields of research related to catalysis.

In this project two inventories by means of extensive literature searches have been executed: Inventory 1 of all types of soil and growing media (if relevant components thereof) to be elaborated considering (i) the soil and growing medium imported as commodities (i.e. not in association with plants intended for planting), (ii) the soil and growing medium attached to plants for planting, and (iii) the soil and growing medium attached as a contaminant to imported goods (ranging from ware potatoes to agricultural machinery). Inventory 2, based on interceptions data and scientific and technical literature, of plant pests, plant diseases and weeds that can be associated with soil and growing medium (if relevant components thereof). Execution of Inventory 1 resulted in a list of 956 soils and growing media. Execution of Inventory 2 resulted in Excel tables for each taxonomic group separately in which the pests and diseases are linked to the soil and growing media. Additional information has been provided for processes applied to produce growing media and the impact on harmful organisms and private certification schemes applied in Europe to control the trade and use of growing media.

Report on developing guidelines and procedures for the pesticide registration in Ethiopia in a scientifically underpinned way and as specific as possible for Ethiopian conditions. It covers the aspects of efficacy assessment, human health risk assessment as well as environmental risk assessment. It aims to develop the capacity at the APHRD to apply these guidelines and procedures. The Work package will result in an evaluation manual plus software tool for the Animal and Plant Health Regulatory Directorate (APHRD) of the Ministry of Agriculture of Ethiopia. The user-friendly software tool operationalises the guidelines and procedures for human health risk assessment and environmental risk assessment; all basic pesticide data can be entered in it and these will be used for the risk estimates.

Het doel van het onderzoek is het in kaart brengen van: De fytosanitaire kosten in de productie- en handelsketen van de glasgroenteteelt en de mogelijkheden om via een plantgezondheidsfonds een tegemoetkoming te verstrekken bij een eventuele schade als gevolg van fytosanitaire maatregelen gericht op het weren, uitroeien en beheersen van quarantaine (waardige) organismen.

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The objective of this project was to develop a framework for risk assessment of introduction, establishment, spread and persistence of vector-borne livestock diseases by integrating the essential elements of different approaches. This framework will help risk analysts to assess the risk of vector-borne diseases, considering both likelihood of occurrence and potential impact to inform stakeholders on behalf of their decision making.

Aim Ecologists seeking to describe patterns at ever larger scales require compilations of data on the global abundance and distribution of species. Comparable compilations of biological data are needed to elucidate the mechanisms behind these patterns, but have received far less attention. We assess the availability of biological data across an entire assemblage: the well-documented demersal marine fauna of the United Kingdom. We also test whether data availability for a species depends on its taxonomic group, maximum body size, the number of times it has been recorded in a global biogeographic database, or its commercial and conservation importance.Location Seas of the United Kingdom.Methods We defined a demersal marine fauna of 973 species from 15 phyla and 40 classes using five extensive surveys around the British Isles. We then quantified the availability of data on eight key biological traits (termed biological knowledge) for each species from online databases. Relationships between biological knowledge and our predictors were tested with generalized linear models.Results Full data on eight fundamental biological traits exist for only 9% (n = 88) of the UK demersal marine fauna, and 20% of species completely lack data. Clear trends in our knowledge exist: fish (median biological knowledge score = six traits) are much better known than invertebrates (one trait). Biological knowledge increases with biogeographic knowledge and (to a lesser extent) with body size, and is greater in species that are commercially exploited or of conservation concern.Main conclusions Our analysis reveals deep ignorance of the basic biology of a well-studied fauna, highlighting the need for far greater efforts to compile biological trait data. Clear biases in our knowledge, relating to how well sampled or ‘important’ species are suggests that caution is required in extrapolating small subsets of biologically well-known species to ecosystem-level studies.

Recente vondsten van quarantaine organismen in de boomkwekerij hebben laten zien dat de boomkwekerij kwetsbaar is voor fytosanitaire risico's. Vondsten van sommige quarantaine organismen kunnen gevolgen hebben die de draagkracht van individuele bedrijven te boven gaan. Daardoor is de gedachte ontstaan onderzoek te doen naar een financieel vangnet, waarmee financiële gevolgen geheel of gedeeltelijk gecompenseerd kunnen worden, en de continuïteit van de bedrijven niet bedreigd wordt door fytosanitaire risico's. Hiervoor heeft de boomkwekerijsector met steun van het ministerie van Economische Zaken, Landbouw en Innovatie LEI Wageningen UR gevraagd een kwantitatieve risicoanalyse uit te voeren. In deze rapportage wordt daarvan verslag gedaan. De resultaten kunnen gebruikt worden om de haalbaarheid van een financieel vangnet te beoordelen.