VineMan.org: Europe supports the research on organic viticulture

Summary

The Kick-off meeting of the research project VineMan.org, coordinated by Prof. Vittorio Rossi within the CORE Organic II, a transnational research cooperation project supported by the European Commission, was held at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Piacenza on the 24th January 2012. The meeting was attended by the representatives of each research unit coming from Italy, Austria, Germany, Spain and Slovenia. Also representatives of the Italian Ministry for Agriculture (Ministero delle Politiche Agricole, Alimentari e Forestali) attended the meeting.
The project, as explained by Prof. Rossi in the initial presentation, aims at designing, developing, and testing innovative cropping systems for organic vineyards in Europe. Organic agriculture is defined as a production management system which promotes and enhances the agro-ecosystem in the whole, including biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity.
In organic viticulture, plant protection is based on: conservation of the fertility and health of the soil; choice of appropriate viticulture practices, resistant varieties and training systems; timing of the protection measures and application methods; enhancement of natural defense mechanisms; biological pest control and habitat management. Plant resistance, plant management, rational application of protection measure and use of biological control agents (BCAs) are the pillars of disease control in organic viticulture which are addressed by the VineMan.org project.
Considering that organic vineyards cover more than 165.000 hectares in Europe, the results of the project should have a large impact on the European territory. Insufficient disease control (which will be worsen by the progressive reduction of copper fungicides defined by the European Commission) is often the main reason for growers to not adapt, or even abandon, organic production. Development of new and efficient strategies for controlling grape diseases will provide to the EU grape growers new opportunities for entering/remaining in this sector, whose market is constantly growing.
Different dissemination activities are foreseen by the project, such as, the production of a leaflet, a web-site dedicated to the project, seminars and workshops in experimental vineyards for stakeholders and end users and, last but not least, a final conference of international scientific relevance.