JHI heads Centre of Expertise in Plant Health

Europe's IPM network 'ENDURE' reports on the launch of the Plant Health Centre: ENDURE’s Scottish partner, the James Hutton Institute (JHI), is heading up the country’s new Centre of Expertise in Plant Health, which is taking a coordinated cross-sector approach to pest monitoring and will also seek to help stakeholders improve their own plant health capabilities.

Read the article at:

http://www.endure-network.eu/about_endure/all_the_news/jhi_heads_centre…

 

ENDURE brings together some of Europe's leading agricultural research, teaching and extension institutes with a special interest in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) within the general context of environmentally friendly and sustainable agriculture.

ENDURE was originally a Network of Excellence funded by the European Commission from 2007 to 2010. Network partners learned to work together as researchers and agricultural advisers tackled the complexities of helping European farmers meet the challenges of the new European regulatory framework regarding crop protection. This framework puts a special emphasis on IPM, demanding each Member State places it firmly at the centre of their agricultural planning as part of National Action Plans which must be produced as part of the new legislation.

ENDURE members were quick to seize the opportunities presented by working together. The synergies created, the possibilities offered by working in multi-disciplinary teams better able to unravel the complexities of understanding agricultural systems rather than single pests and diseases, and the possibility of pooling resources and applying results across national boundaries made it obvious that working together was the way forward.

At the end of the European Commission funding period in 2010, partners committed to keeping ENDURE going as a self-funded European Research Group.

Now, ENDURE's 15 partners continue to operate at the heart of IPM research and extension, working alongside others in this dynamic and challenging field to identify those areas where further research is needed, possible funding sources and providing expert assistance, both nationally and at a European level, to ensure IPM continues to develop as a sustainable, cost-effective and achievable way of contributing to food security and a better environment.