Kontext

The use of synthetic pesticides in agriculture has led to increased food production, but this has come at a significant environmental, natural resource, and human health cost. Farmers hesitate to adopt non-chemical weed control due to perceived complexity, cost, and time. Despite EU initiatives like the Green Deal and Biodiversity Strategy aiming to reduce synthetic pesticide use, innovative methods are poorly disseminated and research findings underutilized. Promoting non-chemical weed control requires consolidating the EIP-AGRI OG landscape.
In order to address the aforementioned challenges, Oper8 is promoting innovative, non-chemical weed control methods and increasing the flow of information in the EU. To this end, it draws upon concrete demonstration cases and tangible results from participating and future OGs.

Objectives

The main objective of Oper8 is to establish a self-sustainable, multi-actor, EU-wide Thematic Network that will support and promote solutions for non-chemical weed control. This will be achieved by building upon the knowledge and outcomes of 8 OGs and stimulating knowledge exchange among all relevant stakeholders. Specifically:
1)Establish the Oper8 Thematic Network and setup National Networks
Oper8 TN aims to establish a self-sustainable EU network around 8 OGs to enhance knowledge sharing and expand them into NNs within the AKIS ecosystem, fostering collaboration and maximizing the initiative's impact and efficiency.
2)Identify grassroot needs and barriers
To achieve this goal, a bottom-up approach is essential to capture practitioners' needs, identifying gaps and barriers across different contexts. The Oper8 project will use these insights to develop National Action Plans tailored to available solutions and identified challenges.
3)Create an Inventory of Solutions
An inventory of solutions, drawn from research, and commercial results, will be created and refined through National and European workshops. After this evaluation, a cost-benefit analysis, readiness, and acceptability assessment of selected NAPs will be conducted, leading to the identification of Best Practices.
4)Scale up and cross fertilization
To achieve this, local and transnational knowledge exchange must be scaled up, while mainstreaming scientific and practical knowledge on non-chemical weed control. OG results should be maximized through localized materials like Practice Abstracts, Fact Sheets, and e-learning modules. Creating synergies with stakeholders and related initiatives is essential. Policy recommendations should be developed and presented to EU bodies to support Eco-schemes and Rural Development policies.

5)Communicate, Disseminate and Demonstrate Best-Practices
The Oper8 CDPlan will effectively share project outcomes through Best Practices, Demo Farm, EIP-AGRI materials and educational materials

Activities

Oper8 will adopt a dual top-down and bottom-up approach to address farmers' needs for non-chemical weed control. The bottom-up strategy involves engaging AKIS actors and stakeholders in each partner country, identifying existing solutions, and gathering practitioner needs, adoption gaps, and barriers through national surveys. This will be followed by two rounds of National Workshops to evaluate National Action Plans and select Best Practices.

The top-down approach will conduct a thorough review of scientific literature, grey literature, commercial reports, and EIP-AGRI outputs to create an initial Oper8 inventory of solutions, which will inform the National Action Plans. Expert panels in each country and two European Workshops will assess the cost, readiness, and acceptability of these solutions, refining them into adaptable Best Practices.

The project will leverage partner OG solutions and establish partnerships with EIP-AGRI networks to support large-scale transformative changes in sustainable agriculture. Demonstration events will promote peer-to-peer learning, while online training materials, aimed particularly at practitioners, will encourage broader innovation dissemination. Dissemination materials, Practice Abstracts, Fact Sheets, audio-visual material, and an e-learning module will be multilingual, and cross-visit events will enhance knowledge exchange across Europe.