Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - IWMPRAISE (Integrated Weed Management: PRActical Implementation and Solutions for Europe)

Teaser

Currently, the reliance on herbicides is very high in conventional farming systems. There are several reasons for this, such as the lack of commonly agreed thresholds3 and, until recently, also the lack of effective, readily applicable, cost-effective (in terms of investments...

Summary

Currently, the reliance on herbicides is very high in conventional farming systems. There are several reasons for this, such as the lack of commonly agreed thresholds3 and, until recently, also the lack of effective, readily applicable, cost-effective (in terms of investments and labour costs) non-chemical methods. There are two factors driving the immediate need to change weed control strategies in conventional farming: the rapidly increasing problem of herbicide resistance and the fact that herbicides are the main cause of contamination of both surface waters and groundwater. In addition to these two immediate concerns, it is also widely acknowledged that herbicides have partly been responsible for recent declines in farmland biodiversity and hence a negative impact on the associated ecosystem services

The overall objective of IWMPRAISE is to demonstrate that adoption of IWM supports more sustainable cropping systems both agronomically and environmentally, which are resilient to e.g. climate changes without jeopardising profitability or the steady supply of food, feed and biomaterials. IWMPRAISE aims to develop, test and assess management strategies delivered across whole cropping systems for four contrasting management scenarios representing typical crops in Europe. The specific objectives are to 1) quantify and address current socio-economic and agronomic barriers to the uptake of IWM 2) design, evaluate and optimise novel alternative weed control methods and create a ‘tool box’ of validated IWM methods 3) assess the agronomic performance and environmental and economic sustainability of IWM strategies and 4) make results available to end users. The development of IWM strategies are supported by WPs delivering practical knowledge and tools as well as knowledge and tools for assessing and disseminating the strategies ensuring a vertical integration of the project.

Work performed

Except for some minor delays, IWMPRAISE progresses as scheduled in the project proposal. Due to a delayed start of IWMPRAISE, the expected 9 months between project start and the initiation of the first field experiments was reduced to 3 months. This meant that that the IWM mental models that WP1 should provide for WP3, 4, 6 and 7 was not available at the beginning of the first experimental season but only at the end of the first reporting period. Because several of the WP3, 4, 6 and 7 participants were involved in the interviews with experts and end-users, which were the basis for the IWM mental models, the implications of this delay was minimal.

All activities of WP2 have been initiated and the WP has already produced several exploitable results such as a list of tools to be applied in IWM strategies in WP3-7, a catalogue on legume species adapted to be used as relay crop in winter cereals and a prototype combining band spraying and inter-row cultivation.

The first year’s WP3 and 4 trials in narrow-row and wide-row annual crops were successful completed despite the abnormal climatic conditions in the growing season and the preliminary evaluation were made by the national clusters.

In WP5, the fields in the North Wyke Farm Platform in the UK were re-sampled for relative species biomass and a multi-factorial experiment investigating the effects of seed bed preparation, seed mix diversity and sowing rates on the diversity and abundance of unsown species was initiated. Furthermore, intial experiments were conducted in the Netherlands with sensors that can discriminate between crop and weeds and a spot sprayer and the moth, Pyropteron doryliforme, intended to be used for augmentative biocontrol of Rumex sp. in grasslands, was collected in Spain and reared in Switzerland.

Field experiments in perennial woody crops were initiated in WP6 in Spain (in northern and southern Spain) and in the UK. The experiments study the effect of soil management, cover crops and mechanical weeders.

WP7 focuses on the potential conflict between IWM and non-inversion tillage/conservation agriculture. A number of activities addressing the transition phase from conventional soil tillage to non-inversion tillage/conservation agriculture have been initiated. In addition, data from ongoing or terminated long-term experiment on soil tillage are being collected and will be summarized and used in a meta-analysis.

Empirical data from field experiments only became available in the last quarter of 2018, therefore, there are currently no WP8 results available from integrated analyses. Focus has therefore been on consolidating and validating the models that will be applied in WP8 using national data sets.

A communication team has been established and the WP9 activities are progressing well. The public website (www.iwmpraise.eu) was up and running very early in the project period. Examples of other WP9 activities are two newsletters, a booklet describing the 2018 field trials, inspiration sheets on IWM tools and field days. IWMPRAISE is also present on social medias (Twitter, Instagram and YouTube) and contacts have been established to countries not represented in the IWMPRAISE consortia.

Concerning management (WP10) an internal collaborative workspace was up and running already at the time of the kick-off meeting. Pre-payments have been allocated to all partners and templates and guidelines for reporting, minutes etc. have been developed and distributed to the partners. An internal quality check and submission procedure for deliverables and milestones have been introduced. To ensure transparency on the progress of the project bi-annual internal progress reports are prepared by the WP leaders prior to the ExCom meetings. All planned meetings have been held.

Final results

IWMPRAISE combines activities centred on research & development (R&D), with activities that adopt the “interaction innovation model’, involving end users and other actors in a partnership with public research institutes and private businesses, adopting a truly bottom-up approach. IWMPRAISE commits resources to provide the theoretical background as well as the tools required to successfully implement the “interaction innovation model”. IWMPRAISE will address any lack of knowledge in close collaboration with the SMEs providing the non-chemical IWM tools by setting up an ‘innovation hub’. Overarching these activities is WP 9, dedicated to dissemination, outreach and networking.

IWMPRAISE acknowledges that without the acceptance and support of the end user, IWM strategies cannot be successfully implemented in practice. Preliminary and on-going assessments to reveal whether end users find the IWM strategies satisfactory, from an efficacy and cost point of view is, therefore, an important task. The ‘end user approved’ IWM strategies will be assessed thoroughly to demonstrate their short and long-term environmental and economic sustainability. The long-term agronomic benefits, such as a lower weed density, a more diverse weed flora, a lower risk of developing herbicide resistance and a higher robustness of the cropping system to future climate changes will be assessed using a modelling approach along with environmental and economic sustainability of the IWM strategies. By including a diversity of stakeholders at every stage of the project and acknowledging their different priorities, IWMPRAISE aims to design and implement systems that optimise trade-offs between agronomic, economic and environmental assessment metrics.

Website & more info

More info: https://iwmpraise.eu/.