Policy recommendations

This reports presents codesigned recommendations to the EU, the member States, the supply chain, advisors, trainers, and farmers on three priority topics: innovation, training and advice, and supply chain involvement, in order to unlock the IPM implementation. Both views are available in the document: from the subject promoted, and from the stakeholder responsible. 

Recommendations on three priority topics: innovation, training and advice, and supply chain involvement	Recommendations to the EU, the member States, the supply chain, advisors, trainers, and farmers or group of farmers

These recommendations have been designed in collaboration with a group of sixty experts from all the agricultural chain (decision makers, administration, advisors, input suppliers, downstream industry, agricultural chambers, farmers), and compared with the reactions of external stakeholders representing the same categories of stakeholder in order to assess their realism by comparing them with the reactions that might be received if the recommendation were implemented. You can directly access this report on the contributions of stakeholders to the policy recommendations.

This report provides extensive recommendations for implementing IPM in a manner that bridges the gap between the realities of farm-level decision-making and European-level policies. It explores the political levers to make the agronomical changes feasible, through policy recommendations to all the agricultural ecosystem under the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive (SUD). 

The project introduces Active Prophylaxis as the core strategy for achieving SUD objectives. Active prophylaxis prioritizes preventive measures and anticipatory interventions across various scales, reinforcing system resilience, reducing pest pressure, and consequently lowering the need for curative intervention. 

A critical barrier to widespread IPM adoption is that the agricultural value chain is currently locked-in. Achieving the objectives of the Sustainable Use Directive and securing sustainable crop protection is possible. It relies on recognizing that the transition cannot be achieved solely by the farmer. By focusing political effort on regulating innovation, improving training and advice, and distributing responsibility and engagement fairly across the agricultural supply chain, the burden on farmers will decrease, ensuring that IPM, based on the paradigm of Active Prophylaxis, becomes the operational pathway for lasting change. 

See the D6.1 summary ilustration below.