Online seminar on organic fruit growing

Diseases and pests are among the biggest challenges in organic fruit production. Synthetic chemical pesticides are taboo, but organic farmers are constantly developing new strategies to counter these problems in other ways.

The Europe-wide BIOFRIUTNET project initiated by Naturland has therefore set itself the goal of pooling this practical knowledge, which is often only available regionally, in order to make it available to all organic fruit growers in Europe. This is exactly what an online seminar on 10 March 2022 (9:30-12:30 am CET) entitled "Innovations in pest and disease control in European organic fruit growing" is all about, for which anyone interested can register here.

Introduction: Marco Schlüter, head of international & strategy at NATURLAND, board of directors of IFOAM 

• Room 1: Biotremology as a pest control measure in organic fruit production.

• Valerio Mazzoni, Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Mach (IT)
• Rachele Nieri, Center Agriculture Food Environment, University of Trento (IT)
•   Moderation: Vincenzo Verrastro, IAMB (IT)

• Room 2: Living mulches for tree row (understory) soil management.

• Michael Friedli, FiBL (CH)
• Claude-Eric Parveaud, GRAB (FR) 
•  Moderation: Eligio Malusa, INHORT (PL)

A registration to participate to the online seminar is required. Please register here.

What is BIOFRUITNET?

Naturland initiated the project BIOFRUITNET and brought together the consortium, associating 16 NGOs, research institutes and universities from 13 EU countries to bridge the gap between science and practice in organic fruit production. Over the decades, organic fruit growers have gained a lot of experience. The problem, however, is that this knowledge is not easily accessible to farmers all over Europe and remains either locally known and certainly not accessible to all European producers, or only available in the scientific sphere and aren’t widely disseminated in practice. The sector needs a strong organic fruit network that bridges this gap and makes local solutions available to other fruit producers. This is where BIOFRUITNET comes in:

1. Collect and synthesize existing knowledge ready for practice throughout Europe
2. Create a stable European innovation network
3. Identify and strengthen established networks
4. Widely distribute the collected best practices in an easy-to-understand format and disseminate the information through high impact channels.

The first materials have already been produced:

3 Videos:

1. Mauerbienen für eine erfolgreiche Bestäubung in geschlossenen Kirschen-Anlagen (BIOFRUITNET) - YouTube
2. Neue Wege im Bio-Obstbau: Intelligente Abdeckungen und Guyot-Erziehungssystem bei Apfel - YouTube
3. Mechanical weed control in orchards - machine demonstration - YouTube

Stay informed! www.biofruitnet.eu

Duration of BIOFRUITNET: 01.11.2019 to 31.10.2022

For more information: Sophie Egerer, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This project has received funding from the European Union research and innovation program “Horizon 2020” under grant agreement No 862850. This document reflects the views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views or policy of the European Commission. Whilst efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy and completeness of this document, the European Commission shall not be liable for any errors or omissions, however caused.