“We have launched 22 new groups of farmers working on reducing pesticide use across Europe”
Calypso Picaud - Regional Chamber of Agriculture of Occitania (France)
Calypso Picaud at Agroscope (Nyon, Switzerland) during the second IPMWORKS Annual Meeting.
Calypso Picaud works in the Regional Chamber of Agriculture of Occitania in France. She leads the efforts to set up an European network of IPM demonstration farms within the H2020 IPMWORKS project (Work Package 2 - Network Building). By building a community of farmers, advisers and researchers, the project intends to encourage the exchange of experiences, foster interactive innovation, and ultimately promote the adoption of IPM practices across Europe.
For the moment, the project has managed to launch 22 new groups of farmers that are working on reducing pesticide use, the IPMWORKS hubs. During this interview, conducted in the course of the second IPMWORKS Annual Meeting held in Nyon (Switzerland), Picaud reflects on the H2020 project’s key achievements.
Question. What is the structure and functioning of the IPMWORKS network?
Answer. We focus on peer-to-peer exchanges. We have 22 hubs, which are farmer groups working on reducing pesticide use. They are organized in five sectors: arable, greenhouse, orchard, outdoor vegetables, and vineyards. We also have the organic cross sector, which takes a cross-sectional look at all. Each sector has a leader in charge of organizing exchanges between the hub coaches, who are the facilitators in the farmer groups. They exchange their experiences on the demonstration events done in their groups, or on a particular IPM technique that has been put in place in the groups, so that the different countries can learn from each other.
The network building also goes into trying to smoothen information flows in the project. We have a newsletter that is sent monthly to all of the hub coaches to inform about what’s going on in the network so that they can get inspiration from other groups.
Q. What are the main activities carried out by the IPMWORKS network so far?
A. In this first two years of the project, we had the Covid situation, so it was hard for us to build the network. But we finally managed to gather the groups of farmers and started doing the networking between the hub coaches, the facilitators of these groups, and helping them develop and understand what we were expecting from them in the project. So for example, we organized a training for the different hub coaches so they could exchange information on their experiences at facilitating the hub, on IPM techniques and strategies. We also held a meeting in March 2022 to gather all these hub coaches so they could exchange ideas on the different topics. And for the moment, we have 22 new hubs that have been launched. They have started demonstration events, and they have even started visiting each other in some sectors.
We focus on peer-to-peer exchanges.
The IPMWORKS hubs are organized in sectors: arable, greenhouse, orchard, outdoor vegetables, and vineyards; the organic takes a cross-sectional look at all.
Each sector has a leader in charge of organizing exchanges between the hub coaches, who are the IPM facilitators in the farmer groups.
Q. If you had to pick one success story from this past two years, which one would you choose?
A. If we have to pick a success story for the first two years of the project, it would be the cross visits. We have managed to organize three cross visits. One of them was held last September, when two different hubs visited outdoor vegetables and soft fruits farms in Finland. We had farmers from the different hubs visiting the farmers in Finland, watching the IPM strategies they have tested there and exchanging on different IPM-related topics.
Q. The first IPMWORKS Annual Meeting took place online in October 2021. One year later, the partners are meeting in person in Agroscope (Nyon, Switzerland). How is the experience going so far?
A. It’s really interesting because we are finally seeing everyone and exchanging experiences on how we are working with farmers to reduce their pesticide use. Hub coaches that are facilitating the farmer groups are finally getting to meet, share IPM strategies that have been put in place in their countries, and talk about how they manage to facilitate the hubs and make the farmers work on reducing their pesticide use. The aim, also, is to touch farmers outside the IPMWORKS project through demonstration events. So here in Agroscope we are reflecting on what can be done to touch more farmers.