Folienplanung

So yes, the point will be an introduction of 
the plant protection --

of the pyramid for the first part.

Then we will go for ecosystem based 
management approach of the pyramid.

So the bottom part and then we'll focus on 
the top part.

And in both of them we will give you some 
examples.

And I will conclude the presentation with the 
national list that we have,

and which I'm working with to have an idea of 
what is it.

So let's start with the first one and let's 
start with the the question what do plant

diseases -- how do plant diseases develop?

Maybe most of you know there is the 
interaction of three different diseases or

different part of that triangle that they 
bring to diseases on plants.

And the three parts are the pathogen, 
the host and the environment.

And yes, the host could be from different 
variety,

age, different genetic homogeneity.

Then the pathogen could have different 
virulence,

quantity, type, inoculum, 
presence of different vectors,

and environment is the temperature, 
humidity and daylight.

And only when all of three are in the right 
moment you have diseases.

It seems that it's kind of difficult to have 
diseases,

but in actually or in reality is not the 
case.

As you may see outside in the world, 
that is lot of diseases occurring every day.

This is why because sometimes pathogens can 
also,

so as you see, as I told you, 
it's they are limited in a few occasions,

but they can survive in a spore or sclerotia 
--

so resisting structure in the environment.

And they are waiting for the right moment to 
infect plants.

So then we move on and okay, 
now we know what we need to have a disease

and how to regulate then plant disease in 
organic farming.

So as you may know, in organic, 
there is no --

synthetic pesticides are not allowed.

And what is very important is to use indirect 
measurements or try to think about

your crop or your plants, 
like in a, completely in an environment.

So don't only look at the diseases and your 
plants,

but think about the plants that you have in 
your orchard,

but also the insects on the soil, 
microorganism in the soil also,

but also microorganisms and insects in the 
environment around the plants that play an

important role to protect or spread diseases 
around.

Yes. And now we go further, 
and I will introduce the plant protection

pyramid, which could be maybe known.

The bottom part is the preventive part and 
the top one is the curative.

In organic farming it's very important to 
focus on the preventive part.

So in the bottom one to work a lot on this, 
to avoid or decrease the amount of products

that we have to apply afterwards.

So to give a cure on your plant, 
it's better to prevent any,

any way in these in plant diseases as to give 
a cure.

Because you try to forecast or you try to be 
in advance the pathogens.

Because if you have to cure, 
it's too late, and then you can,

you are trying to catch up with the pathogen 
and usually they are faster than us.

So in the bottom part we have natural 
measurements like your extensification of

land use, the biotope networks If we move a 
bit up,

then we have a different cultural management 
practice like co-production,

a different type of cultivar resistance, 
a resistance timing allocation.

And then if we move a little bit further, 
it's functional biodiversity.

So you can you try to make your environmental 
resistance with some wild flower

strips or using an antagonist in in your 
crop.

And then for the curative part, 
usually we use some so it's used some

inundative or inoculative biocontrol 
organisms or release of beneficial organisms

like insects. And the last part, 
the biocontrol,

the direct biocontrol or control is to use 
insecticides,

pheromones or physical measures to really 
kill somehow your pathogens.

Okay. Let's then move on to the second part.

So the importance of the ecosystem-based pest 
control.

So this as I said before, 
the the preventive part or the bottom part of

the pyramid, the pyramid.

And as I told before, 
this is indirect measurement.

So to try to avoid a pathogen inside of your 
crop.

On the bottom part, as you may see, 
there is really the environment.

So where and how you locate your orchard when 
you have the possibility is very important if

there is a different type of flowers, 
herbs,

shrubs, different flower strips, 
or what is located near to a forest or not --

location change a lot in the disease control.

This is why -- because you can, 
if you have a complete monoculture or a big

monoculture, when the disease is inside of 
your cultivar or orchard,

it just finds all what you need to spread.

Because you just have to reproduce on a leaf 
or fruits or vegetables.

And once you produce spores, 
they just have to go next a few metres away,

you have another plant to ready to infect.

And it spreads, it produce a lot of spores 
or,

or pathogen or mycelia, 
and then it's very difficult to control it.

You have to really kill it.

While if there is some barriers in between, 
it's for the pathogen more difficult to

spread around. In the second part, 
so a step further in the pyramid you can use

some, you can change a little bit a little 
bit your host,

for example, introducing some or crossing for 
resistant variety.

For example here we have a Blauacher or 
Otava.

Otava is resistant to apple scab or a little 
bit resistant of apple scalp with a gene.

This gives resistance to apple scab, 
but for example is not resisting against

Marssonina and other pathogens.

Integrating a lot of different resistance in 
one cultivar is very complicated and takes a

lot of years. And always one single strategy 
is not working.

So only one single gene, 
or only working with a resistant variety is

not a solution. You have also to integrate, 
as I said before,

the different environmental strategy or a 
construction strategy,

but also integrating with protection or 
application of fungicides or pesticide.

For example, on the right side of the slide, 
you can see in the Downy mildew on grapevines

and you see there is some resistance, 
so certain resistance to Downy mildew,

but you still apply some copper to avoid that 
in a few years,

your resistance is, it's gone.

The other type of cultural management 
practices are,

for example, how you physically protect your,

and in the middle we have, 
for example, three different way of

protecting your orchard.

Like it's standard to use the net against 
hail.

But you can put some temporary protection or 
a year protection,

like a tunnel to protect your crop against 
the rain.

This will decrease the amount of some 
diseases,

but unfortunately, you will then maybe 
increase some other pathogen that don't like

a lot your mid to high humidity.

And then we have some strategy that alternate 
or to kind of find a solution in between.

Like on the left there is a net to avoid 
insects that spread diseases.

Or you have this mobile weather shelter -- 
Control shelter --

that they open when it's raining and they 
close when there is a sunny day.

Or you can also combine it, 
like we have in here at Frick,

a photovoltaic panel that protect your 
orchard.

And at the same time it produces some 
electricity.

But everything has some disadvantage and 
advantage.

And you have to find always the best strategy 
of your orchard,

looking for diseases that are present around,

and looking at the, the different 
possibilities that you have.

Now moving a little bit further in the 
pyramid.

We go in the functional biodiversity.

And this is one of, one of the biggest 
experiments that we had here at FiBL some

years ago. You see that we use some different 
resistant varieties of apple and that they

were that the, the distance, 
the distance between the plants were higher

than conventional, and in between the plants 
we put some flower strip,

some rock pile or nest for insects.

And the point is to acquire insects, 
to protect your crop against other insects

and avoid spreading of diseases and or animal 
like predators that catch some detractors on

your field. And in the same experiment, 
we also then tested some in two different

block. One was an application of bio control 
organism,

and the other one was a release of of so one 
was insect and the other one was a,

was a bacteria to, to add on the top of it 
another layer of protection.

And we also thought that the soil with a 
compost-driven fertilisation.

And you can see here it's a bit maybe full, 
this slide,

but it's really explain the complexity of the 
systems and that you have to really go for

covering or or protecting your orchard in a 
different way.

Also protecting, you prevent the disease or 
spreading around.

Yes. And now we go a little bit further on 
the pyramid and we move to the curative part.

So these are direct measure, 
which are.

Yes. The two top. So one, 
the two points.

So inundative biocontrol or direct 
biocontrol.

And here we have some examples.

So we have the microorganisms like bacteria 
and fungi.

Some bacterium Pseudomonas and Trichoderma, 
some example.

Or the pest like some microorganism and 
entomopathogenic Nematodes and parasites and

predators, then maybe Dani will explain a 
little bit more later in the presentation.

In the next presentation.

And yes. So I've worked the mechanism out of 
biocontrol.

There is basically four main ways of 
protecting.

So you have a competition for nutrients and 
space.

So you apply your bacteria or fungus on top 
of your plant or on your soil,

and then they should occupy the space and 
avoid that pathogen,

have the possibility to grow in effect.

Or they can act as an antagonist, 
producing some antimicrobial compounds which

act as killing or avoiding that the other 
organisms grow.

There is also the possibility of hyper 
parasitism.

So your product is a hyper parasite -- 
other organism killing

or feeding from them. Or you can at last 
point induce an immune resistance,

a system in your plant.

So your activating system of the plants that 
acts against other pathogens or attack of

pathogens. Of authorised biocontrol organism 
may be

most of you know already.

And you see there is based on different fungi 
or bacteria.

It's there are kind of quite new, 
so quite known in different products and

they`re against some just fungi or 
Sclerotinia which are the resistant part that

remain in the soil of a fungi.

Or they`re against some potato disease or, 
yes,

different pests. And now we come to the last,

so the unpopular level of the pyramid.

The top -- the top one.

And despite its unpopular, 
it's sometimes very,

is crucial for protecting your crop.

It's, let's say one of the last, 
is the last things that you can do to

protect. And this is why you should not go 
much there.

So you should prevent the disease spreading 
in your in your orchards.

The more you protect or the more you avoid 
the diseases inside,

the better it is to have a good production at 
the end of the years.

And yes the natural, they are only natural 
substances for organic.

They could be from mineral origin, 
plant proteins,

plant extracts or microbial metabolites.

And as you know, already, 
synthetic and herbicides are not allowed.

Only few, unfortunately, 
only few are allowed in organic farming.

And they want the active ingredient, 
it's listed in the input list that will show

you later. This is only an example, 
or is an example "Madex" one of the most

used, and is to which is the active substance 
of your product,

but is always in combination with an 
additive.

So you have always both.

And the additive are just there to keep your 
active substance stable in the time.

So you will end up with a lot of, 
or more products,

which contain the same active substances.

Yes. And this is, you can see in the picture 
left,

there is the example of the copper.

And in the table you see some different 
molecules or active ingredients used.

And you can see that, 
for example, copper is used in the 23

different fungicides, 
at least in in the list.

Yes, in the list. But then you have also some 
oil,

some sulphur or bicarbonate.

And yes, they all work against.

So most of them work against fungi.

Then now moving to the last part, 
I hope I am in time.

It's on the national input list.

So we will just keep now on the, 
skip on the top part of the pyramid.

So the active measurement, 
and we move, we would like to understand

which are the products that are allowed or 
that we can use.

So we have this European input list, 
which is a compilation of national lists.

It's a political forum actually, 
is not, there are no legal validity for the

farmers because it's a compilation of all the 
products that you have,

but you have always to follow the national 
list to see which product is allowed or not

in your country. In the picture that you see 
on the top,

it's actually the different, 
so all the products that we have in Europe

that are listed for the moment and on the 
right side and by the way,

the QR code there just bring you directly to 
the input list.

So the, to the web page.

And on the right side you see, 
or you have the composition of the European

input list. And as you can see, 
half of it, it's fertiliser.

A quarter, a little more, 
they're feeding.

And the last quarter is composed from 
products for cleaning,

product for parasite control, 
or plant or strain.

And only 9% of the product we have in the the 
European input list for the plant protection,

as is, the plant protection products.

What is important to say, 
that these lists are built for the farmer and

for the advisers who pay the list are the 
producers.

So the different actor that would like to 
sell a product in organic farming,

they pay for the listings and the lists are 
based on open criteria.

So are public. And the idea of the list is to 
create a clarity on the,

or to something that is clear for everyone of 
which product can be used or not.

And now we go from the National input lists.

The National input lists are actually the 
real list.

So the one that -- the one that you can use 
in your country,

and here in Switzerland we are taking over 
four different lands from Switzerland and

Netherlands, Italy and Sweden.

Germany, it is taken over by FiBL Germany and 
Easy-Cert takes over or looks for Austria,

Croatia and Hungary. These are again a public 
register that are used.

Or it's for the organic farmers.

And it's used by the farmer to see if the 
products are compliant with organic

regulation. And exactly the idea is to give 
more transparency for everyone,

but also for the farmer, 
that they have already in farming.

And regarding the plant protection products, 
just some major role is more complicated than

this. But the point is that we are using EU 
regulation to evaluate the protection

products, and they must be allowed in organic 
farming,

and the inputs should be GMO-free.

These are the main major point to look for 
the plant protection.

And now to bring to the take home message.

Yes. Just briefly you have to consider 
specificity above efficacy.

So you have always to think about on your 
pest,

which on which pest you are focussed on, 
and understand the pathogen or the pest is

crucial, to find or to understand how it 
spread and to,

to fight against them.

There is a broader range of strategies 
applied in crop protection.

We're talking about the plant protection 
pyramid before.

Most of the strategy are preventive, 
an indirect strategy is actually what I will

always suggest to the people. Focus on the 
bottom part of your pyramid,

and only go on the top if it's really 
necessary.

And it's only limited for range of plant 
protection products.

It's yes, only slow that are low risk are 
allowed in organic.

And for the input list, 
as I said before, it's a public register free

of charge for the farmers.

And it is to verify compliance and increased 
transparency for the farmer and for everyone.