The uptake of integrated pest management (IPM) practices by farmers faces challenges across Europe. Changes outside the farm level are needed to overcome barriers and maximise opportunities for the adoption of IPM. This modest study reports on a backcasting workshop with strawberry sector stakeholders from business, education and advisory services, along with policymakers, who co-created desirable future visions for strawberry farming in the Netherlands in 2053. To encourage the participants to ‘think outside the box’, a presentation was given by a practitioner of organic strawberry growing and selling. Although the vision of some stakeholders focused on high tech while others promoted high nature, both included zero use of chemical crop protection products and incorporated robotics to monitor plant health. These findings suggest that, despite vested economic interests, established routines and agreements that resist change, stakeholders can co-create a radically different and sustainable future when imagining 30 years ahead. We end this paper with a statement that collaboratively constructing a desirable future vision is important for triggering internal motivation for transformative sectoral change. Both internal and external drivers are important when aiming for sustainability transitions.
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Agricultural run-off and subsurface drainage tiles transport a significant amount of nitrogen and phosphorus leached after fertilization. alchemia-nova GmbH in collaboration with University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna developed two multi-layer vertical filter systems to address the agricultural run-off issue, which has been installed on the slope of an agricultural field in Mistelbach, Austria. While another multi-layer addressing subsurface drainage water is implemented in Gleisdorf, Austria. The goal is to develop a drainage filter system to retain water and nutrients. Both multi-layer filter systems contain biochar and other substrates with adsorption properties of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus). The filter system can be of practical use if an excess of nutrients being washed out is of concern in the fields of the practitioner by keeping the surrounding waters clean. This approach may result in economic value by re-using the saturated biochar as fertilizer and improving the soil structure, thus increasing long-term soil fertility. Link: https://wateragri.eu/a-bio-inspired-multilayer-drainage-system/
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No 858735This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No 858735. FACTSHEET NANOCELLULOSE MEMBRANES FOR NUTRIENT RECOVERY Key information Functionalized nanocellulose membranes can take up nitrate and phosphate. These membranes can be put in a water treatment unit. As the membranes are biobased, degradable materials, they can after use be added to the soil, thus returning the leached nutrients back for their original purpose providing fertilizers (nutrient recycling).
Because variables such as temperature and humidity have a profound effect on the activity of crop pests, diseases and natural enemies, the ability to monitor environmental conditions within a crop has always been important for crop protection.