ABSTRACT
Direct plant protection in organic farming Bernhard Speiser, Hans-Jakob Schärer and Lucius Tamm, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Switzerland
1 Introduction
2 Current practices in organic plant protection
3 Currently authorised materials
4 Dynamics of authorisation of materials in the EU
5 Efforts to replace copper fungicides
6 Future trends and conclusion
7 Where to look for further information
8 References
In conventional agriculture, plant protection is strongly focused on the application of pesticides. By contrast, organic farming has a much broader view of plant protection, which also includes the maintenance of plant health through adapted management practices. The best-known examples of such indirect plant protection measures include the choice of adapted species and varieties, crop rotation, cultivation techniques, thermal methods and the protection and/or release of natural enemies. Such measures are highly specific for individual crops, pests/pathogens, regions and cropping systems. Readers with an interest in such practices may consult the book of Finckh et al. (2015), where an overview of such practices given by Van Bruggen (2015) and the roles of crop rotation (Leoni et al., 2015), water management (Koike and Cahn, 2015), biodiversity enhancement (Finckh and Wolfe, 2015) and crop resistance (de Milliano et al., 2015) in controlling plant diseases are discussed in detail. Detailed case studies for organic potato, small grains, rice, temperate legumes, vegetables, apple, grape, banana and coffee illustrate the potential and limitations of cultural practices versus direct plant protection in different crops and site conditions.
