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Jean-Louis Sarah
Montpellier, France
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Jean-Louis Sarah: "Integrated crop protection is a major global issue"
25/11/2010 - Article
As the ENDURE project draws to a close, a permanent EU research group is about to take over. Its mandate is to perpetuate what the ENDURE network has achieved in terms of integrated pest management. Jean-Louis Sarah, network contact at CIRAD, explains how the organization has played a key role in opening up this EU research group to international partners.
Remind us of ENDURE's objectives and vision…
Jean-Louis Sarah:
Intensive farming, which still accounts for the vast majority of cultivated areas, is entirely dependent on pesticides. There are several ways of reducing their systematic use; this is what is known as integrated pest management (IPM). The EU member countries have committed to making IPM a reality by 2014. In ENDURE's view, this can only be achieved by associating researchers and pest management players within an ongoing process of integrating innovative solutions into farming systems so as to reduce their dependence on pesticides. Those solutions need to be tailored to local conditions.
To this end, the ENDURE network (European Network for the Durable exploitation of crop protection strategies) was launched in 2007. The project was coordinated by INRA, with 11.2 million euros of EU funding over four years, to build a network of excellence. It involved more than 300 researchers from 18 European organizations. The fruit of their labours was recently presented at a closing conference, on 24 and 25 November in Paris. The event also served as the official launch of the European Research Group ENDURE-ERG, which will be maintaining, updating and supplementing the genetic resources generated by the network of excellence.
What was CIRAD's role within the network of excellence?
J.-L. S: In terms of research, we coordinated a case study of banana, a plant grown in the French overseas regions, took part in the study of tomato, a topic concerning horticulture, and a survey of decision support systems in Europe. CIRAD was a member of the ENDURE Executive Committee, and was in charge of public relations and of forging links with countries in the South. It also brought its own knowledge and expertise outside the strictly European framework to the debate on how to come up with a shared vision of crop protection.
Why is CIRAD continuing to be part of a European network?
J.-L. S: ENDURE-ERG aims to be a world leader in the field of IPM strategies. On the strength of that ambition, the network has to collaborate with countries outside the Europe Union. There are several reasons for this. Europe imports and consumes vast volumes of products from the tropics. Moreover, farming on the old continent is or is going to be faced with the emergence of exotic pests and diseases, fostered by global warming. Pests are a particularly crucial problem in tropical and subtropical regions, and we have a lot to learn from what countries in the South are doing. As a result, facilitating ENDURE's international relations was a major priority. This is obviously still the case for ENDURE-ERG, and CIRAD is continuing to provide its expertise in terms of partnerships with and knowledge of farming systems in the South. In return, it is able to contribute to talks on the European aspects of this approach, which comes under the heading of ecological intensification, one of CIRAD's priority lines of research.
What plans are there for collaboration and closer links with the South?
J.-L. S: The kinks established over the past four years are to be strengthened. For instance, partners in the South were involved in case studies, such as the African Research Centre for Banana and Plantain (CARBAP), on banana, and the University of Talca in Chile, on the grapevine. During the project, plans were also hatched for other regional networks like ENDURE. The Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences (ZAAS, China), which played an active part in all the working groups, is really keen to build an ENDURE-type network on IPM and to work with ENDURE-ERG. A Mediterranean network is also due to be set up, centring on these issues. Across the Atlantic, Argentina and Brazil - through EMBRAPA - have expressed strong interest in working with ENDURE-ERG. The possibility of a regional network within the South American Economic Community is also being looked at. Lastly, it is vitally important to involve African partners. Just recently, the announcement that the headquarters of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) was to be based in Montpellier has broadened the range of opportunities for collaboration and integration. These openings offer good prospects for global IPM research inasmuch as the wider the debating community, the richer and more fruitful the debate.
Interview by Caroline Dangléant
IPM? What's that?
The integrated crop pest management concept was developed in the late 1950s, in the light of the problems resulting from more widespread use of synthetic pesticides. for ENDURE, IPM is an ongoing process of improvement, in which innovative solutions are integrated and adapted to local conditions as and when they are developed. This helps make farming systems and farmers less dependent on phytosanitary products.
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