IPM Conference 2024

Holistic IPM: Reducing Pesticide Use

Organised By IPMWORKS & IPM Decisions On May 14, 2024 08:00
Address: Herman Teirlinck building, Havenlaan 88, Brussels

The European Union has set the ambitious target of halving pesticide use and impact in European agriculture. IPMWORKS and IPM Decisions are two sister H2020 projects contributing to this challenging objective by promoting a holistic approach for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and jointly organising the IPM Conference 2024 in Brussels, 14th May 2024.

Please save the date.  Further information will be circulated when online registration is open.

IPMWORKS is an EU-wide network of farmers and advisers engaged in the reduction of pesticide use and the demonstration that it is feasible and cost-effective, when the five pillars of IPM are combined at the farm level.

The pan-European IPM Decisions platform provides farmers and advisers with easy access to Decision Support Systems for avoiding unnecessary pesticide treatments. Specialised dashboards for applied researchers enable evaluation, comparison, adaptation and development of decision support.

The IPM Conference 2024 will provide a forum for stakeholders involved in the development of IPM, including: farmers, advisory services, retailers, agro-industries, researchers, decision support developers and policy makers. The Conference will present results and tools produced by the two projects, with testimonies of farmers and advisers highlighting success stories in IPM implementation and practical solutions to reduce the reliance on pesticides.

Plenary sessions and workshops will address IPM through five pillars:

  • Pillar 1: Landscape designed to decrease pest pressure, through spatial diversity, hedgerows, grass and flower strips and other semi-natural habitats favouring beneficial biodiversity, etc.
  • Pillar 2: Cropping systems designed to decrease pest, weed and disease pressure, through diversified crop rotations, cultivars resistant to diseases, intercropping, sowing dates adapted to escape pests, moderate fertilization, etc.
  • Pillar 3: Use of non-chemical pest control solutions whenever possible, such as mechanical weeding (and eventually robotics), release of biocontrol organisms, mating disruption, protective nets, etc.
  • Pillar 4: Optimized decision making to avoid unnecessary treatments, based on precise monitoring of pests and Decision Support Systems.
  • Pillar 5: Increased efficiency of treatments, through spraying equipment allowing reduced doses, technologies for precision and patch spraying

The Conference will be held in person and in English (no streaming)

These projects have received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements no. 817617 and 101000339