project - Research and innovation

Best4Soil
Best4Soil

Ongoing | 2018 - 2021 Netherlands
Ongoing | 2018 - 2021 Netherlands
Currently showing page content in native language where available

Context

The importance of soilborne diseases of vegetable and field crops caused by pathogens and nematodes was evaluated by the EIP-AGRI Focus group “IPM practices for soil-borne diseases suppression in vegetables and arable crops” and a final report published: (http://ec.europa.eu/eip/agriculture/en/content/ipm-practices-soil-borne…). This Focus group was composed of growers, advisers from private companies and public services, and scientists from all over Europe and where therefore able to give a representative overview of the state of the art and the occurring development in the short and long run.

With the recent withdrawal of most chemical soil fumigants as well as some fungicides in Europe, the threat and actual damage of soilborne diseases to the sustainable production of vegetables and field crops is rapidly increasing.

Objectives

Healthy soils are of major importance for the future of the European crop production. Especially in intensive production systems, soilborne diseases are a major factor with a negative impact on soil health. Newly developed best practices and sound crop rotations permit to maintain, improve or re-establish soil health in Europe.The BEST4SOIL project will build a community of practice network across Europe by inter-connecting growers, advisers, educators and researchers. Through this network, knowledge ready for practice on 4 best practices for the control of soilborne diseases will be promoted.

Objectives

See objective in English

Activities

As innovative tool will BEST4SOIL provide videos (youtube). Videos, databases and factsheets are edited in 22 official EU languages to facilitate the innovation management of practitioners throughout Europe. The information will be freely accessible to guarantee a smooth knowledge transfer from research to practice. BEST4SOIL will deploy local facilitators to set up a network with active communities of practice resulting in an intensive knowledge exchange. Project partners and facilitators in at least twelve more countries, the network will interconnect an important part of the European growers, advisers and educators, the main stakeholders of BEST4SOIL.

Additional comments

Soil health is at stake in many EU countries. Soil health is threathened by parasitic nematodes and soil born pathogens. Many farmers are not aware of this or miss the information about the actual situation on their farm. Soil sampling is a good instrument to assess the situation in the field. But soil sampling costs money, is mostly only carried out when problems in practice are encountered, and the services are not available everywhere in Europe.

Project details
Main funding source
Horizon 2020 (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
Type of Horizon project
Multi-actor project - Thematic network
Location
Main geographical location
Veluwe

EUR 1 998 299.00

Total budget

Total contributions including EU funding.

Resources

Currently showing page content in native language where available

25 Practice Abstracts

Currently showing page content in native language where available

Contacts

Project coordinator

Project partners