12 / RESEARCH
BEST4SOIL:
DEVELOPING A DECISION SUPPORT TOOL TO GUIDE CROP ROTATION IN EUROPE Dheeraj S. Rathore and Dr Michael T. Gaffney from the Horticulture Development Department, Teagasc, Ashtown share results from recent developments of Best4soil, a tool aimed at re-establishing soil health in Europe
“H
ealthy soils establish the foundation for sustainable horticultural and agricultural crop production, essential ecosystem functions and food security ” states the UN Food and
,
Agriculture Organisation. A handful of soil contains more microbial life than there are people on the planet earth. These countless microorganisms work continuously to provide a range of ecosystem services including supporting the functioning of the environment and providing resilience to changes in the environment. The soil also serves as the largest filter and storage tank for fresh water on the planet. Furthermore soil stores more carbon than the overall environment that subsists on the earth’s surface, through a process described as soil carbon sequestration. Moreover, soil accepts, decays, digests, cycles and stores all organic forms and converts it into nutrients that serve for the establishment of plants, animals and all other life forms on the planet. Successful agricultural production depends greatly on the health of soil. Soil-borne diseases are major limiting factors in intensive crop production systems, negatively impacting plant health and in many instances requiring intervention with a plant protection product. The knowledge on susceptibility of different crops to soil-borne phytopathogens and nematodes exist through numerous scientific and technical publications. Within Europe there is a wide variation in the practice and knowledge of crop rotation, and a central location or facility to collate information on the susceptibility of crops to different soil borne disease is warranted and needed. This need has led to the creation of web-based decision support tool (DST) to assist growers/farmers in planning crop rotations which will be less impacted by the diseases of the previous crops. This tool has been created by collating information from scientific papers, manuals and institutional publications. However just collating this information is not enough, it needs to be accessible and its ultimate end users need to know it exists and how to use it. Therefore, one of the main objectives of the BEST4SOIL project is to build ‘community of practice’ (CoP) networks across Europe by inter-connecting growers, advisers, educators and researchers to maintain, improve or re-establish soil health
in Europe. The BEST4SOIL project has repackaged this existing knowledge and will communicate the most up to date knowledge on the range of phytopathogens and nematodes affecting both agricultural and horticultural crops through factsheets, videos and grower events.
INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT In 2014, the Sustainable Use of Pesticide Directive (128/2009) came into force in the European Union and in combination with Directive 1107/2019, there is now comprehensive legislation governing the placement and withdrawal of pesticides from the market together with for the first time, guidelines on the use phase of pesticides. As part of this new legislation on the ‘use’ phase, there is now a requirement for growers within the EU to produce crops in a manner compliant with the principles of Integrated Pest Management or IPM. IPM requires growers to consider alternatives to pesticides for crop protection purposes in the first instance, and only resort to synthetic pesticides as a ‘last resort’. Often there has been a heavy focus on replacing chemicals with biological or low impact alternatives, however, in many cases these products either don’t exist or are ineffective. More traditional approaches such as crop rotation, the incorporation of organic matter etc. are often undervalued, but may actually be more effective and the lowest cost to implement. The online tool or decision support tool created as part of this project aims to help growers by providing them with scientifically supported data, in an accessible form which will allow them to plan rotations with a view to minimising soil borne disease and nematode carry over. While the use of the app will not prevent disease it will hopefully assist growers in (1) encouraging rotation as a plant health strategy and (2) reduce potential pesticide inputs which could be avoided.
IMPROVING SOIL HEALTH As part of a general movement which is increasingly interested in the environmental impact of agriculture, there has been a surge of interest in research, education and advocacy to catalyse agricultural policies that support farmers & growers to conduct activities such as crop rotation which can improve soil health and help to mitigate against
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