IPM Decisions: DSS on track for next year

November 19, 2021

IPM Decisions is on track to provide access to 17 Decision Support Systems (DSS) through its online platform early in 2022. Scheduled for the first release are DSS dealing with common diseases such as late blight in potato, early blight in tomato and downy mildew in lettuce, alongside invertebrate pests such as carrot rust fly, cabbage moth and cabbage root fly.

The Horizon 2020 project brings together 27 partners who are working to create an easy-to-use online platform for pest monitoring and management. The platform will be available across Europe, offering DSS, data, tools and resources tailored to different regions.

IPM Decisions coordinator Neil Paveley and IPMWORKS coordinator Nicolas Munier-Jolain recently explained how Integrated Pest Management (IPM) acts as a pathway for farmers to reduce pesticide inputs and improve production systems.

Writing in Open Access Government, they explain: “There is a diverse range of DSS available on the market, including many excellent examples of crop protection DSS that are well tested and implemented. A catalogue of 73 free-to-use or commercial pay-to-use DSSs has been collated so far, covering diseases (40), insects (26), weeds (6), slugs (2) and haulm killing (1).

“However, the proportion of farmers and advisors currently using DSS is relatively low. The IPM Decisions project will provide farmers and advisors easy access to IPM DSS through a pan-European online Platform and associated IPM Decisions Network.

“Access to the Platform will be via a tailored ‘dashboard’, specific to the user’s requirements. As end users of DSS, farmers and advisors will benefit from a simple ‘click and go’ platform to find and run DSS that have been evaluated for their regional conditions, using freely available weather data integrated into the Platform.

“Alongside the Platform, IPM Decisions is working with stakeholders to better understand the socio-economic barriers and incentives to DSS uptake, and to identify opportunities to apply the lessons learnt to increasing DSS use throughout Europe.”

For more information:

• Visit the IPM Decisions website here
• Visit the IPMWORKS website here