On 4 March, VIRTIGATION organised with its plant health sister projects SAGROPIA, BIOVEXO & NextGenBioPest a webinar on the future of plant protection in the EU.
Future of plant protection in Europe at a crossroads
This highly successful webinar brought together more than 60 stakeholders, including policymakers, plant scientists, agro-industry actors, agricultural extension services and growers as key actors of the VIRTIGATION network. With the future of EU plant protection policies at a crossroads under the new EU Commission, this timely event mobilised plant health stakeholders to share their visions on the best ways forward for plant protection in Europe. With this webinar, VIRTIGATION and its sister projects SAGROPIA, BIOVEXO and NextGenBioPest also informed stakeholders about recent developments in R&I in crop protection. EU Commission expert Gisela Quaglia from its Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development provided a comprehensive overview to webinar participants in this regard.
Project contributions to EU plant protection efforts
In the first part of the webinar, scientific representatives from the four EU-funded projects outlined their projects’ key contributions to EU plant protection efforts. VIRTIGATION coordinator KU Leuven, represented by researcher Kumar Vasudevan, outlined VIRTIGATION’s progress attained so far in developing new biopesticide formulations for whitefly control in greenhouses, based on natural plant extracts.
Vasudevan concluded his presentation by providing recent examples of the project’s whitefly control field trials, which will enter into their final phase in spring 2025.
Spirited debate on way forward for EU plant protection
The joint plant health projects webinar concluded with a spirited panel debate, moderated by VIRTIGATION expert Tiziana Centofanti from partner RTDS Association. In the discussion, the scientific representatives of VIRTIGATION, SAGROPIA, BIOVEXO and NextGenBioPest covered the entire spectrum of EU plant protection policies. The panelists notably discussed the future direction of IPM, and how stronger public awareness and education efforts could help strengthen citizen and stakeholder (e.g. grower) support for IPM application. Moreover, the plant health experts assessed how plant protection solutions should evolve in the light of climate change conditions. The experts also stressed the importance of engaging in strong collaboration with stakeholders such as growers, researchers and policymakers in IPM strategy development.
Several common challenges were identified by the panelists to jointly collaborate on in moving forward, especially to engage in advocacy efforts for a more flexible registration process for plant protection products. The webinar then concluded with a highly active and lively Q&A session, where attendees also shared their experiences with plant protection policies in countries outside the EU (e.g. Brazil).
More on the topic of plant protection in Europe:
- Recording of the webinar on YouTube
- Introductory presentations by VIRTIGATION, SAGROPIA, BIOVEXO and NextGenBioPest scientific representatives
- Overview on EU legislation on plant protection products
