Work

FORTUNA Deliverable 3.1 - Research needs and gaps to support F2F targets and moving beyond towards pesticide-free agriculture

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The CSA FORTUNA aims at mapping and identifying potential innovations to increase inte-grated pest management, the main drivers and barriers for this as well as the knowledge gaps to reach the goals of the EU Green Deal, which has set the ambitious goal of reducing pesti-cide use by 50% by 2030. In addition, FORTUNA has an ambition to describe an even further goal of a zero-pesticide scenario. An extensive literature mapping was carried out in FOR-TUNA and the methodology was described in Deliverable 2.1. The resulting inventory of stud-ies relevant to obtain the goal was analysed to identify measures ready for implementation in practical farming and measures in need of further research or support to reach a developmen-tal stage for practical implementation. The work was carried out for the chosen crop categories of FORTUNA: arable crops, vegetable crops and perennial crops (orchards and vineyards) and for all the major pest groups. During the analysis, measures for management in crop-pest combinations were identified: 146 ready to implement measures/strategies were identified for weed, disease and insect pest management. In addition, measures for other pests (molluscs, nematodes, bacteria, viruses, vertebrates) were described. Barriers and drivers for practical implementation were described based on the analysed literature and the first stakeholder workshop of FORTUNA. Finally, research gaps were described with one of the main findings being that a large proportion of studies did not investigate measures in combined strategies thus limiting the efficacy of the non-chemical measures, which are rarely as effective as chem-ical pesticides. In addition, many innovative measures have yet to be tested under field con-ditions at a sufficiently large number of location or during more than two field seasons. The coverage of climatic conditions is also limited for some measures as well as the variety of crops with the three main categories targeted in FORTUNA.The inventory from the mapping was also explored to identify agroecological strategies for crop protection and pest control at both field and landscape scales. These strategies are based on the use of functional (agro-)biodiversity as a driver to improve pest management in agroecosystems and, consequently, to reduce reliance on external inputs. Pest management approaches were subjected to a risk analysis, focusing on issues such as potential productivity and economic losses, lack of adequate technologies, knowledge, and training, and other con-straints that may limit the adoption and upscaling of innovative practices. In addition, barriers and drivers related to primary producers and the agri-food chain were evaluated.A separate literature study was carried out to support an analysis of the consequences for pest management considering expected climatic changes. Because of climate change, it is expected that the areas where pests could establish and spread will be different in the future. The distribution of pest species, which are sensitive to temperature shifts will potentially move to other areas with suitable climates within Europe and new invasive species can establish in Europe with potentially detrimental impacts on European agriculture. The analysis identified a list of pest species (native or invasive) that could pose future risks for the European agriculture under climate change. Available chemical/non-chemical pest control measures were proposed for each selected species. Based on Köppen-Geiger classification, we also predict the climatic suitability of risky pests in a warming Europe.

Source: Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23811722

Authors: Sønderskov, Mette, Leoni, Federico, Zhang, Han, Makowski, David, Berlin, Anna, Selmeczi, Dora