Crops. Photo: Jenny Svennås-Gillner
24
May

 –

25
May
Room L, entrance via Ulls Hus, Campus Ultuna, Uppsala, Hybrid: Live in Uppsala and digital webinar

Crop protection futures in agriculture

events | conferences | seminars, workshops |
Crops. Photo Jenny Svennås-Gillner

Crop production is the vital basis for our food system, but the current set up is highly dependent on inputs of chemical pesticides and mineral fertilisers. Crop protection researchers, experts and other interested parties from all over Europe will gather in Uppsala to discuss strategies for crop protection with few or no chemical pesticides to make cropping more robust, resource-efficient and environmentally friendly.

European and global food production face major challenges which call for impact assessments and coordination of knowledge, innovation and transformation. Crop production is the vital basis for our food system, but our current cropping system is highly dependent on inputs of chemical pesticides and mineral fertilisers. The inputs have a negative impact on human health and the environment and the systems are vulnerable to long and broken supply chains, climate change and pest outbreaks. Cropping needs to become more robust, resource-efficient and environmentally friendly.

To make cropping sustainable, it is paramount to maintain plant health and minimize crop losses due to pests, diseases and weeds – problems that are expected to increase with climate change in present cropping systems. Fewer and fewer chemical pesticides are available to the farmers as they are phased out and few new reaches the market. No new modes of action of pesticides have been discovered (none since 1994), and pests and weeds are ever more resistant to available pesticides.

Ambitious plans are put in place for decreased pesticide use and risks, such as the EU Farm to Fork strategy. These shifts pose challenges, but also open opportunities for productive, competitive and sustainable food production.

On 24 May 2023 the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) hosts an afternoon event with discussions on the future of crop protection in agriculture. The focus will be on recent achievements, future solutions and ways forward. The discussions will feed into current developments related to crop protection and pesticide use within the European Union. The event will be proceeded by a side event before lunch with speed talks and networkning. The day after, on 25 May, there is an opportunity to participate in an excursion to SLU's research field site Lövsta and to Linnaeus' Hammarby, the summer house of Carl von Linnaeus built in 1762.

For the full programme, se further below.

Facts

Time: 2023-05-24 - 2023-05-25
City: Hybrid: Live in Uppsala and digital webinar
Location: Room L, entrance via Ulls Hus, Campus Ultuna, Uppsala
Organiser: SLU Future Food & SLU Plant Protection Network
Last signup date: 15 May 2023
Price: Free of charge
Additional info:

Organisers and contacts

Riccardo Bommarco, Professor at the Department of Ecology, SLU, Riccardo.Bommarco@slu.se

Annsofie Wahlström, Director of SLU Future Food, SLU       Annsofie.Wahlstrom@slu.se

Sara Gräslund, Head of SLU Global, SLU, Sara.Graslund@slu.se     

Participation

LIVE participation

DIGITAL participation

  • The event will be broadcasted as a webinar via Zoom and the link will be sent out some days before the event.
  • Digital participatione is eco-friendly and convenient, but you will miss the all important networking (and Sweden in the month of May).

Resources and news

Sweden 2023 EU

Further events on plant health

  • Friday 2023-05-12 at 11:00–12:00 CET: SLU lunch webinar on the International Day of Plant Health discussing challenges for plant health in agriculture, horticulture and forestry.
  • Wednesday 2023-05-24 at 9:00–12:00 CET: SLU side event to the conferense Crop protection futures in agriculture with speed talks and networking. For more information, see the programme below. For participation, please register on this web page.
  • Thursday 2023-05-25 at 9:00–13:00 CET: SLU excursion to the research field site Lövsta and to Linnaeus' Hammarby, the summer house of Carl von Linnaeus built in 1762. For more information, see the programme below. For participation, please register on this web page.
  • Monday 2023-05-29 at 09:30–15:00 CET: SLU live workshop on plant health from a plant breeding perspective. Workshop to be held in Höör on development and challenges to promote good plant health, including what the latest EU regulations mean. Furthermore, results from SLU Grogrund are presented, as well as future scouting and needs from the industry. In Swedish only.

Programme

Wednesday 24 May 2023, 9:00–11:30, Side event

9:00–10:00 Introduction and speed talks

  • Welcome by Riccardo Bommarco, SLU
  • Integration of IPM technologies in future crop protection, Mukesh Dubey, SLU
  • Automated in field detection of potato blight, Roy Kennedy, WCUC
  • Molecular tools pave the way for IPM solutions, Ann-Charlotte Wallenhammar, Rural Economy and Agricultural Society
  • Replacement of contentious inputs in Organic Farming Systems, Hans-Jakob Schärer, FiBL
  • Paths and side paths of environmentally-sounds viticulture in Slovenia – more than 30 years of implementation, experiences and perspectives, Denis Rusjan, University of Ljubljana 
  • Integrated pest management smart technologies to precisely detect and control plant diseases, Dimitris Tsitsigiannis, Agricultural University of Athens
  • Spray-induced silencing as a possible strategy for plant disease control, Ramesh Vetukuri, SLU
  • Crop Protection in the future – Challenges and possibilities, Carl-Henric Ljung, Swedish Crop Protection Association

10:00–10:30 Fika

10:30–11:30 Speed talks

  • Improving and deploying biocontrol strategies: a multidisciplinary challenge, Thibaut Malausa, INRAE
  • Reducing insect pest pressure and crop damage by spatiotemporal isolation of oilseed rape fields, Fabian Boetzl, SLU
  • Farmers' attitudes toward reducing pesticide use: What factors can support change? A case from Croatia, Renata Bazok, University of Zagreb
  • Climate-proofing IPM - what are the prospects and challenges?, Paul Egan, SLU
  • Weed seed predation. A promising ecosystem service for sustainable weed control, Eirini Daouti, SLU
  • Non-chemical weed control of Elymus repens (couch grass) and other perennial weeds, Björn Ringselle, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden
  • Crop diversity for crop protection: getting the mix right, Chloe MacLaren, SLU

 

Wednesday 24 May 2023, 11:30–17:30, Conference

11:30 Registration, lunch & mingle

13:00 Introduction

13:30 Scientific achievements and knowledge needs

14:45 Foresight report

15:15 Fika 

15:45 Knowledge and dialogue on science, farming and food

16.40 Final reflections

17:15 Summary and conclusions

 

Thursday 25 May 9:00–13:00 (Side event)

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