June 10, 2019
An online resource centre has been created in France to support farmers seeking to avoid glyphosate use. The French government announced last year that glyphosate would no longer be an option for most uses within three years and within five years it would no longer be used for any purpose.
To support this process, three partners have been tasked with creating the resource centre and to strengthen the support measures offered to farmers through the country’s Ecophyto programme. This programme is designed to substantially reduce pesticide use over the coming years. The partners comprise ENDURE members INRA (France’s National Institute for Agricultural Research) and ACTA (which represents the country’s agricultural technical institutes). They are working alongside France’s Chamber of Agriculture.
The resource centre will be progressively fed with new contributions, particularly from farmers and field experiences, and currently offers information in three formats. These are summary articles which explain the challenges of avoiding glyphosate use and offering access to other resources, information from France’s GECO collaborative knowledge database, offering economic, agronomic and ecological information on techniques, pests and practices, and testimonials from the DEPHY demonstration farm network. The latter include videos presenting examples of specific territorial implementations at the cropping system scale.
This information is broken down into six major crop types: field crops, arboriculture, vegetable crops, tropical crops, perfume, aromatic and medicinal plants, and viticulture.
Taking field crops as an example, reports are offered on alternatives to glyphosate use before sowing, for destroying cover crops and for clearing pasture. From the GECO knowledge base comes information on planning ploughing over the course of the rotation, superficial tillage after harvesting and the rolling of cover crops during the intercrop period.
Among the examples from the DEPHY network, there is the case of farmer Eric Buysse, who combines livestock and crops on his 206-hectare farm in a water catchment area in northern France. Eric has introduced a combination of agronomic levers to significantly reduce weed pressure (particularly from foxtail). The introduction of the false seedbed approach has made it possible to dispense with glyphosate applications.
Chemical control is the most frequently used method for managing weeds in the rows of fruit trees, though mechanical weeding offers interesting possibilities, reports the arboriculture section of the resource centre. However, there are consequences on the working hours required and can involve a not inconsiderable outlay on equipment.
Examples from the GECO knowledge base include the sandwich method (pictured above right), which uses a simple tool to remove plant growth either side of the row (a strip of between 40cm and 1m), leaving a central strip of plant growth of a maximum 20cm. Another option is the use of various materials, including plastic, wood chips or cut grass, as mulches. From the DEPHY network comes the example of an olive farmer who accepted the presence of permanent plant cover under his trees, with consequent advantages for beneficial insects.
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