| 1. |
- Carton, Nicolas, et al.
(författare)
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On-farm experiments on cultivation of grain legumes for food - outcomes from a farmer-researcher collaboration
- 2022
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Ingår i: Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. - 1742-1705 .- 1742-1713. ; 37, s. 457-467
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is a growing interest among farmers and consumers in increasing production and consumption of grain legumes in Sweden. This requires better knowledge among farmers and advisors about suitable species, varieties and management practices for different conditions. Since cultivar suitability and management practices are highly site-specific, farmers need to gain their own experience of new crops and practices. This paper describes a farmer-researcher collaboration in which cultivation of grain legumes for food was investigated in on-farm experiments designed, managed and evaluated jointly by a group of farmers and researchers. Farmers tested innovative practices using within-field species diversity, comparative performance of varieties and methods for weed control. Post-harvest steps such as cleaning and selling the crops were considered by farmers to be integral components of the experiments. The process generated different types of knowledge, including practical knowledge on crop management, strategic knowledge on economic sustainability and knowledge about joint learning through collaboration. The on-farm experiments combined advantages of 'pure' farmer experiments (i.e., context specificity) and 'pure' researcher experiments (i.e., scientific inquiry), facilitating deeper analysis and understanding of outcomes. This enabled efficient knowledge building, adoption of new crops and innovative practices and stimulated further experimentation. The outcomes of this study are that farmer-researcher collaborations using on-farm experiments can stimulate collective learning by stimulating the exchange between participants and combining complementary perspectives throughout the experimentation process. The study also provides recommendations for facilitating on-farm experiments in future work, for instance using collective settings to evaluate the results.
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| 4. |
- Nilsson, Ulf, et al.
(författare)
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Förstärkt växtskydd med blommande växter : i grönsaks- och fruktodling
- 2017
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- I dag finns ett stort intresse bland odlare och rådgivare för biologiska växtskyddsmetoder, speciellt i grönsaks- och fruktodling. Syftet med denna rapport är att förmedla resultat från aktuell forskning som studerat olika metoder för att förbättra biologisk bekämpning genom att gynna olika skadegörares naturliga fiender. Rapporten är en kortad och översatt version av en kunskapssyntes utgiven av EPOK 2016: ”Habitat manipulation – as a pest management tool in vegetable and fruit cropping systems, with focus on insects and mites”, författad av Ulf Nilsson, Mario Porcel, Weronika Świergiel och Maria Wivstad. Jordbruksverket har ansvarat för översättning och textbearbetning som gjorts av Birgitta Rämert och Elisabeth Ögren. Rapporten innehåller även ett tillägg med bilder från svenska odlingar. Merparten av bilderna är från gårdar som medverkar i Jordbruksverkets utvecklingsprojekt ”Biodiversitet i frilandsodling” som startade 2015. Elisabeth Ögren och Johan Ascard, Jordbruksverket, har skrivit bildtexterna i det avsnittet. Med denna kortare rapport vill vi göra materialet från kunskapssyntesen mer lättillgängligt och inspirera till att utveckla biologiska bekämpningsmetoder i praktisk odling.
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| 6. |
- Nilsson, Ulf, et al.
(författare)
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Habitat manipulation – as a pest management tool in vegetable and fruit cropping systems, with the focus on insects and mites
- 2016
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Today, there is increasing interest among Swedish growers in biological diversity within the agricultural landscape. Many scientific studies have highlighted the services performed by beneficial organisms, which can help to improve the quantity and quality of crops. One tremendously important ecosystem service is biological control of pest insects and mites. The question is what growers can actually do to increase the abundance and diversity of natural enemies and whether this will have an impact on the pest population and, more importantly, on yield and quality of the crop. Another question is whether biodiversity is always positive for growers or whether there are negative aspects that should be dealt with. These relevant questions are addressed in the present report, the aim of which is to enlarge the current knowledge base on how to improve conditions for natural enemies, so-called habitat manipulation, within annual vegetable crops and perennial apple cropping systems. However, our aim was not to conduct a complete review of all available literature, but instead to select studies that may be of particular value for advisors and growers. We also chose to include the outcomes of a workshop on increasing diversity in apple orchards and interviews with advisors and vegetable growers to investigate the attitude and state of knowledge on habitat manipulation in Sweden today. We focus on natural enemies, arthropod pests and practices applied at field scale, and therefore exclude applications developed for greenhouse crops. Our hope is that advisors and interested growers in particular will find this report relevant and rewarding.
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| 7. |
- Porcel Vilches, Mario, et al.
(författare)
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Monitoring methods adapted to different perceptions and uses of functional biodiversity: Insights from a European qualitative study
- 2021
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Ingår i: Ecological Indicators. - : Elsevier BV. - 1470-160X .- 1872-7034. ; 129
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The role of functional biodiversity for favouring natural regulation and reducing pesticide use in fruit production is generally acknowledged. Although a number of farmers attempt to favour biodiversity through different strategies (e.g. diversified hedges, nesting boxes), they often lack means to evaluate how their actions contribute in practice to functional biodiversity. We assumed here that to create useful and appropriate monitoring methods, it is necessary to take into account the variety of knowledge, perceptions and interests about functional biodiversity. To test our hypothesis, we adopted a comprehensive and participative approach based on interviews and workshops with farmers, advisors and field agronomists involved in apple orchard management. Our objective was to understand their different perceptions and uses of functional biodiversity and then, to design monitoring methods adapted to those perceptions and pre-existing uses. Our findings revealed both a plurality of perceptions of functional biodiversity along with a diversity of objectives and uses of monitoring methods. Based on these results, we identified four main attitudes towards the management of functional biodiversity: the wait-and-see attitude, the naturalist attitude, the regulation attitude and the multifunctional attitude. These attitudes do not correspond to person's profiles, since one person can adopt different attitudes in regard to different biodiversity components or in regard to the different practices supporting biodiversity. In addition, attitudes can vary over time. The identification of these attitudes allowed us to design, with the workshops' participants, a guiding framework to create monitoring programs (i.e. combinations of monitoring methods) adapted to a variety of uses and targeted services.
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| 8. |
- Porcel Vilches, Mario, et al.
(författare)
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Perennial flower strips for pest control in organic apple orchards - A pan-European study
- 2019
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Ingår i: Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-8809 .- 1873-2305. ; 278, s. 43-53
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In many crops, the intensive use of pesticides causes major problems both for the environment and for natural ecosystem services. Apple is Europe's most frequently produced orchard fruit, requiring high pesticide input to combat the most important apple insect pests, Dysaphis plantaginea (Passerini) and Cydia pomonella (L.). Here we sought to control these pests by promoting natural enemies using sown perennial flower strips. We trialled these in the alleyways of organic apple orchards in seven European countries. Visual assessments over two years revealed a higher number of natural enemies on plant parts, and specifically in D. plantaginea colonies on trees, in flower strip plots than on trees in control plots with standard orchard vegetation. Trees in the flower strip plots recorded a slower D. plantaginea population increase as compared with control plots, resulting in reduced fruit damage after the second fruit drop. Likewise, from 2016-2017, the number of preadult codling moths decreased more in the flower strip plots as compared to the control plots resulting in reduced fruit damage. Our study shows on a wide continental scale that the implementation of perennial flower strips in the. alleyways between apple tree rows boosts natural enemies and reduces key apple pests and the associated fruit damage. This supports the role of functional agrobiodiversity as a way to potentially reduce insecticide use in orchards and thus further promote conservation of agrobiodiversity. We also provide suggested plant composition for flower strips adapted to different European countries and recommendations for implementation and management in practice.
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| 9. |
- Porcel Vilchez, Mario, et al.
(författare)
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Assessing the efficacy of a multispecies pheromone dispenser for the control of tortricids in apple orchards: a three-year evaluation
- 2016
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Ingår i: IOBC-WPRS Bulletin. - 1027-3115. ; 112, s. 37-39
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- We tested the possibility of using a single device for the pheromone disruption of a number of lepidopteran pests of apple in Sweden. Experiments were carried out in single conventional orchards of different size equipped with plant hedges and surrounded by variable landscapes. An increasing inhibition of the male flying activity by the synthetic airborne pheromone was measured over the three-year period for the majority of the tested species. The reduction in the larval activity of the corresponding species varied in accordance with the management and the surrounding of the orchard. Experiments in field cages showed a significant interference effect of the synthetic pheromone formulation on location of calling females by released males. The release of each component from the device was continuous over the entire flight period of the monitored species with a partial residual release in the following season. According to our results, we recommend the use of the tested device as a tool to reduce the field population of lepidopteran pests as well as to diminish the load of chemical insecticides in orchards. Due to the variability of the results in relation to single orchard features, field scouting needs to be considered as a necessary support to growers.
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| 10. |
- Porcel Vilchez, Mario, et al.
(författare)
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Farmers' management of functional biodiversity goes beyond pest management in organic European apple orchards
- 2019
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Ingår i: Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-8809 .- 1873-2305. ; 284
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Supporting functional biodiversity (FB), which provides natural pest regulation, is an environmentally sound and promising approach to reduce pesticide use in perennial cultures such as apple, especially in organic farming. However, little is known about farmers' practices and motivations to implement techniques that favor FB, especially whether or not they really expect anything from FB in terms of pest regulation. In fact, FB-supporting techniques (FB-techniques) are massively questioned by practitioners due to inadequate information about their effectiveness. An interview survey was performed in eight European countries(i) to describe farmers' practices and identify promising FB-techniques: (ii) to better understand their perceptions of and values associated with FB; and (iii) to identify potential drivers of (non-) adoption. Fifty-five advisors and 125 orchard managers with various degrees of experience and convictions about FB were interviewed and a total of 24 different FB-techniques which can be assigned to three different categories (ecological infrastructures, farming practices and redesign techniques) were described. Some were well-established measures (e.g., hedges and bird houses), while others were more marginal and more recent (e.g., animal introduction and compost). On average, farmers combined more than four techniques that had been implemented over a period of 13 years, especially during their establishment or conversion period. In general, it was difficult for farmers to evaluate the effectiveness of individual FB-techniques on pest regulation. They considered FB-techniques as a whole, targeting multiple species, and valued multiple ecosystem services in addition to pest regulation. The techniques implemented and their associated values differed among farmers who adopted various approaches towards FB. Three different approaches were defined: passive, active and integrated. Their appraisal of FB is even more complex because it may change with time and experience. These findings provide empirical evidence that the practical implementation of promising techniques remains a challenge, considering the diversity of situations and evaluation criteria. Increased cooperation between researchers, farmers and advisors should more effectively target research, advisory support and communication to meet farmers' needs and perceptions.
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