”Towards Chemical Pesticide-free Agriculture” was the title of a one-day workshop held at INRA in Paris recently. The reason for the meeting was the upcoming EU framework programme for research and innovation, which is set to replace the present Horizon 2020. 

The present EU framework programme for research and innovation, Horizon 2020, is moving towards the end with the last calls in 2019 and 2020. For a while now, people in the EU system have worked on its replacement, Horizon Europe. The process of formulating the research agenda and deciding which areas to prioritise will begin soon. This is the reason that INRA and three German research institutions took the initiative to organise the workshop, to which they invited representatives from research institutions in eight EU countries. Aarhus University was invited as the representative for Denmark. 

INRA and the three German partners had identified three visions, which they believe can contribute to developing the European bioeconomy. One of these is ”Towards Chemical Pesticide-free Agriculture”. The purpose of the workshop was to gain support for the vision and to get the ball rolling with regard to identifying relevant research themes. It was emphasised several times that if the vision is to be attained, then it will be necessary to involve all stakeholders. 

Identification of the most important research themes

The reason that only researchers were invited to the workshop was that there was a desire to identify the most important research themes prior to opening the door to other stakeholders. The organisers of the meeting presented an eight-page pamphlet describing their overall ideas. Participants from AGRO were Mogens Støvring Hovmøller, Mogens Nicolaisen and I. Tommy Dalgaard was also supposed to have participated but could not.   

After a presentation of the ideas behind the proposal and of the participants, we were split up in four thematic groups where the headings were ”Biocontrol, insects and microbiome”, ”Genetics and new species for new services”, ”Technology, modelling and agro-equipment” and ”Agri-food system transition and societal adoption”. New groups were formed after lunch. Discussions in the new groups focused on multi-disciplinary aspects, which will be a very important element in future research efforts within the area of plant protection.  

Towards fewer pesticides – or none at all

The meeting demonstrated that there was support for continuing work on the idea. The next step is to establish small work groups that can continue working with the four themes and prepare a more detailed presentation for each of the themes. Next year two workshops will be held, one in the spring in Germany, and one later on. These workshops will work on developing the ideas and presentations from the working groups, among other things. Following the workshops, the process of creating support for the ideas in the EU system and among the member countries, and ensuring that the vision becomes one of the overarching goals in Horizon Europe, will begin. 

Pesticide-free agriculture within a reasonable timeframe can seem a bit unrealistic with the alternative methods about which we currently have knowledge. On the other hand, there does not seem to be any doubt that with the EU’s current pesticide policies, we are slowly but inexorably moving in that direction. With such an ambitious vision, research will be a completely crucial parameter, which is the reason that I believe that AGRO must play an active role in this work. 

Previous experience with close collaboration with leading European research institutions with the aim of influencing the research agenda within the area of plant protection in the EU has been very positive for AGRO. I am very confident regarding this initiative and look forward to the next step in the process.