EcoOrchard – collecting existing knowledge and generating new knowledge on functional biodiversity of organic orchards

Summary

Organic fruit growers often suffer economic losses due to insect damages. The available natural pest control products are not always effective; and most important: many organic fruit growers would prefer not to use any pesticide at all. EcoOrchard, a CORE Organic Plus project (2015-18) aims to collect existing knowledge and generate new knowledge in order to use Functional AgroBiodiversity (FAB) successfully in orchards. This includes experimental trials in seven countries on the potential of inter-row flower strips for control of key pests and natural enemy augmentation, the establishment of the EBIO-Network as a European-wide network of stakeholders for collecting, sharing and improving scientific and practical knowledge and experience in FAB management, the development and testing of simple FAB assessment tools for use on-farm by growers and advisors, and finally, using a participatory approach to learn about potential constraints that may hamper the adoption of innovative tools and how to solve these constraints by iterative reevaluation.