Staff Publications

In a three-year study (from 2012 to 2014), the efficacy of three apple management approaches (conventional, standard and advanced Integrated Pest Management - CON, IPM1 and IPM2, respectively) was aimed to investigate against apple scab and apple powdery mildew in on-station (small research scale) and on-farm (real large farm scale using existing farm equipment) experiments in order to promote practical adoption of environmentally sustainable management methods. CON used generally applied conventional pest management practices (disease/pest forecasting coupled with conventional pesticide use). IPM1 used a generally applied integrated pest management practices in most European countries (disease/pest forecasting, yellow/green-list fungicide use coupled with pruning against both diseases, yellow/green-list insecticide use coupled with mating disruption against insects). IPM2 used an advanced integration of known non-chemical practices, accepting most principles of organic farming guidelines (disease/pest forecasting, delayed fungicide applications with green-list fungicide use, pruning against both diseases coupled with orchard sanitation, biological control and mating disruption against insects). Scab and powdery mildew incidences were not significantly different between IPM1 and CON while disease incidences were significantly higher in IPM2 compared to either CON or IPM1 (P = 0.05). Overall yield was not significantly different among the three management approaches. However, the amounts of first class fruit were the highest in CON and IPM1 which were significantly higher (P = 0.05) than that of in IPM2. The amount of second class fruit was the highest in IPM2, indicating a lower fruit quality in IPM2 than in CON or IPM1. In addition, overall disease incidences and fruit quality were generally lower in the on-farm than in the on-station conditions. Our research suggested that elements of IPM1 can be easily adopted by apple growers. Despite the advanced integration of non-chemical control practices in IPM2, its future adoption will depend on the control efficacy and the economic sustainability of non-chemical control practices.

The European Commission is currently seeking advice from EFSA (Mandate M-2012-0272) to assess for Arabis mosaic virus, Raspberry ringspot virus, Strawberry latent ringspot virus, Tomato black ring virus, Strawberry mild yellow edge virus, Strawberry crinkle virus, Daktulosphaira vitifoliae, Eutetranychus orientalis, Parasaissetia nigra, Clavibacter michiganensis spp. michiganensis, Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria, Didymella ligulicola and Phytophthora fragariae the risk to plant health for the EU territory and to evaluate the effectiveness of risk reduction options in reducing the level of risk. In addition, the Panel is requested to provide an opinion on the effectiveness of the present EU requirements against these organisms laid down in Council Directive 2000/29/EC. As a consequence EFSA needs insight in the cropping practices of Citrus spp., Fragaria x ananassa, Ribes spp., Rubus spp., Vaccinium spp., Humulus lupulus, Vitis vinifera, Prunus armeniaca, P. avium, P. cerasus, P. domestica and P. persica, which are host plants for these pests. An extensive and systematic literature search was done in which scientific and grey/technical literature was retrieved from the 28 EU Member States, Iceland and Norway. All references were stored in EndNote libraries, separately for scientific literature and grey/technical literature. For each reference information is provided on the source/search strategy, the crop, the country, the topic (cropping practice, propagation, protection or irrigation (only for Citrus)) and protected cultivation vs. field production. Yields of references depended on the crop and on the country. Over 27,000 references were provided to EFSA. This allows EFSA to quickly find information on crop production, both indoors and outdoors, of all crops that were studied in this extensive literature search. The data can be used by EFSA for the present mandate, but are also an excellent basis for other current and future mandates.

Fruitkennisdag Wageningen 22 november 2013 voor 350 mensen