Upscaling efficient alternatives for contentious inputs in organic farming – the recently funded EU-project “SCALE-it”

Summary

Contentious inputs in plant protection such as copper, mineral oil or Spinosad, are still widely used in organic farming due to limitations of alternatives in terms of (i) availability (ii) costs (iii) information on methodology of use, efficacy and benefits to the environment and (iv) acceptance by farmers and consumers. On this background, tools, strategies and techniques are applied in the recently funded EU-project SCALE-it, which starts in May 2025 and runs over four years. The key objective of SCALE-it is to increase the availability, accessibility and adoption by farmers of cost-effective alternatives and thus to support the objective of the EU Farm to Fork strategy through the development, testing and promoting of alternative solutions to contentious inputs in organic production. In SCALE-it contentious inputs for plant and animal production are addressed, including plant protection products, fertilisers/manures from problematic sources, antibiotics, anthelmintics, and vitamins from synthetic or GM origin.