• Over 40 MEPs and the Commissioner of Agriculture have visited the exhibition showing how Integrated Pest Management is an effective alternative to pesticides

• Europe is currently debating the reform of the Sustainable Use Directive

• CIHEAM Zaragoza is Work Package Policy leader of the IPMWORKS project, with 31 partners from 16 European countries

European Commissioner of Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, with MEPs and IPMWORKS project partners at the exhibition in the European Parliament.

CIHEAM Zaragoza organized an exhibition in the European Parliament from 13 to 16 February on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) within the framework of the European research project IPMWORKS. The exhibition “Towards a Europe without pesticides within the framework of the European Green Deal and the reform of the SUD/SUR directive”, refers to a proposal for a Sustainable Use of Pesticides Regulation (SUR) to replace the existing directive (SUD) that is currently being debated in Europe.

The aim of the exhibition was to present IPM as an effective strategy for crop protection. Over 40 MEPs, including the presidents of the AGRI and ENVI Committees, and the European Commissioner of Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, visited the exhibition, where experts from IPMWORKS presented project results and good integrated pest management practices. The display included more than 25 real cases of farmers working to reduce or eliminate pesticides in their daily agricultural practice. They were joined by European project IPMDecisions, as well as IBMA and IFOAM.

CIHEAM Zaragoza’s role in IPMWORKS

IPMWORKS has 31 partners from 16 European countries. CIHEAM Zaragoza’s role in this project is to carry out communication and training activities and lead the Work Package on Policy – the focus of the exhibition held in the European Parliament.

Alun Jones, head of the Projects Unit at CIHEAM Zaragoza, was satisfied with the result in Strasbourg: “A clear outcome was that we need to accompany farmers in the transition towards a targeted and stepwise reduction in pesticides use in farming.”  He went on to say that “this would need significant support from the CAP for demo activities or even from a dedicated funding stream for the ‘IPM transition of conventional agriculture’ in order to ensure real impact at the farm level”.

IPMWORKS shares success stories between European farmers

IPMWORKS started in 2020 with the aim of demonstrating and promoting cost-effective integrated pest management strategies. An important part the project is the network of pioneer IPM farmers that share their knowledge and success stories with other farmers through the project’s demonstration activities.

Nicolas Munier-Jolain from INRAE, France, and IPMWORKS coordinator has pointed out that this project is working in line with the Farm to Fork Strategy of the European Green Deal. “IPMWORKS is working under the umbrella of the Farm to Fork Strategy, which targets a halving of pesticide use and impact. During the exhibition, we had a real opportunity to demonstrate that there are many alternatives to pesticides that some pioneer farmers are using successfully on their farms, with satisfying levels of pest control, productivity and profitability in spite of their reduced use of pesticides."