How to suppress soil-borne diseases in vegetables and arable crops?

On 2 and 3 December 2014 twenty experts: farmers, advisers, researchers, held the first meeting for the EIP-AGRI Focus Group on IPM soil-borne diseases to discuss "How to suppress soil-borne diseases (fungi and nematodes) in vegetables and arable crops and how to enhance cross-fertilisation between different crops and agricultural systems?”

Prior to the meeting, the experts had identified the main soil-borne disease-crop combinations, the control measures generally applied at farm level and bottlenecks for implementation in practice.

During the meeting, the experts discussed IPM practices and methods to combat soil-borne diseases. They listed causes of these diseases, examined their interactions and compared alternative techniques. They subsequently discussed success and fail factors for those practices which they considered most important, and ways to better implement techniques, soil-management and monitoring.

To further develop these discussions, the experts were invited to deliver "mini papers" for the next meeting, in which they will analyse the issue and describe existing and innovative solutions.

Follow their progress here.