EUROPEAN PROJECT GOOD: 36 weed management strategies

GOOD: “An Agroecological Weed Management Network for the promotion of sustainable weed management strategies” 

The first European network of agri-food stakeholders dedicated to sustainable agroecological weed management started this year. GOOD covers the main EU pedo-climatic regions and a wide range of representative arable and permanent crops in organic, conventional and mixed farming systems. Core of the project is the monitoring and evaluation of the technical, environmental, social and economic impact of agroecological weed management solutions.

The project website can be found at: www.goodhorizon.eu. The ambitions of GOOD are to:

1. Deliver innovative combinations for agroecological weed management in the long-term.
2. Develop measures for the management of invasive and competitive weeds.
3. Support EU countries in their efforts to reduce the use of herbicides by 50%.
4. Create and expand a community of agroecologically conscious people and committed citizens. 

Concept, vision and outcome

Concept

Concept Weeds negatively affect the sustainability of EU farming systems and, in conventional systems, weed management is relying to a large extent on herbicides. The reduction of pesticide use and risk has become a major policy target of Farm to Fork strategy, aiming to promote agroecology and the transition to sustainable and resilient farming systems. GOOD is a 4-year project adopting a multidisciplinary approach, aspired to create and evaluate Agroecological Weed Management (AWM) systems. 

The proposed agroecological weed management solutions will be tested (alone or in combination), evaluated, and demonstrated, at several sites across Europe, in so-called "Living Labs". Each Living Lab is representative of local and regional agronomic and economic realities. The activities of the Living Labs will be co-developed with a set of stakeholder representatives (at the national level) and will cover six pedoclimatic zones, with both annual and perennial crops. The Living Labs will test a range of agroecological levers for weed management, in conventional, organic, or agro-pastoral systems: use of cover crops, alone or in combination with certain cultural practices, antagonistic micro-organisms, or digital tools. The value of these methods will be established in terms of their contribution to maintaining (or even improving) crop productivity and farmers' incomes. 

GOOD project will: 

• Create a series of open access tools for various stakeholders, including an AWM repository, to foster the uptake of AWM solutions.
• Develop and make available an open-access digital toolbox to help farmers make decisions about grass cover management.
• Produce a training module on agroecological weed management solutions, establishing “easy-to-adopt” and “custom-made” guidelines.
• Formulate Good Weed Management Practices, supported by quantitative and qualitative evidence at European level.
• Work on scaling-up of GOOD outcomes through policy recommendations and custommade business models to reduce herbicide input across several European agroecosystems. 

Outcomes

1. Creation of an Agroecological Weed Management Network.
2. Development of sustainable, innovative and socio-economically validated agroecological weed management strategies to generate social, economic and environmental benefits through the reduction or suppression of chemical inputs and an optimized use of natural resources, in line with the EU's 2030 targets.
3. Introduction of digital tools for weed management.
4. Enhancement of the agricultural systems resilience without jeopardizing productivity and profitability. 

Living Labs in GOOD

The AWM solutions proposed will be tested (alone & in combinations), evaluated and demonstrated at different locations across Europe in so called Living Labs. GOOD will test AWM practices in annual and perennial crops in 16 Living Labs, in 9 European countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, France, Netherlands, Serbia, Latvia). 

Table 1: Les Living Labs de GOOD : cultures travaillées et pays concerné

AWM Practices

Each Living Lab selects the agroecological weed management practices that are most relevant to the crops they work in. The scope of practices that will be tested in GOOD project is as follows:  

• Cover crops. 
• Intercropping/crop rotation. 
• Pasture. 
• Mowing. 
• Mulching. 
• Mechanical control. 
• False seed bed. 
• Bio-based herbicides. 
• Automated weeding/robots. 
• UAV’s & spot or site-specific spraying. 
• Inoculation of cover crops with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. 

Information specific to the Living Lab in France 

Our Living Lab's experiments are carried out on apple model (with an ambition to extend the results to other fruit species, whenever possible) and take place at the CTIFL Operational Centre of Lanxade, on the banks of the Dordogne in Périgord Pourpre, near Bergerac. On these lowland alluvial soils, dominated by silty-sandy soils, we are following two trials conducted in young apple plots in Integrated Fruit Production, under conditions close to those of the real farm.

The objective of these two trials is to evaluate, in the specific case of the young apple orchard, a set of short-term transferable strategies, based on existing mechanical equipment and combinations of methods. 

In the 1st trial (in place since 2021), the pre-planting phase is also considered, by testing ways to reduce the initial seed stock of weeds (false seedbed; occultation/solarization). In the 2nd trial (starting in 2024), a variety of plant covers, planted on the tree rows, are also being tested, with additional management measures (herbicides during a transitional phase limited in time; or management by mowing). On a rigorous experimental design covering nearly one hectare, a total of 36 strategies are experimented, and assessed regarding to their effectiveness in regulating weeds, their impacts on the trees, on the physical and chemical properties of the soil, and on the beneficial endogenous and epigeal fauna. A set of indicators are identified throughout the operations implemented, to allow an economic evaluation of each of these strategies.

In addition to these trials, we are also exploring the possibility of robotizing mechanical weeding operations in the specific case of orchards, by testing and supporting the evolution of robots currently under development, which would allow the automation of mowing or hoeing weeding strategies along the tree-rows. These robots are tested on entire plots of orchards and their performance is assessed, with regard to their ability to maintain very short grass cover along the tree-rows in total autonomy, and to adapt to the particular design of the orchards. The objective is also to measure the working capacity of these robots (number of robots needed per orchard area) and thus to assess the economic viability of these robotic solutions.

We also aim to identify and promote the adaptation to arboriculture of tools for assisting the guidance of inter-trees mechanical weeding equipment, with the aim of facilitating the work of tractor drivers and allowing faster forward speeds. In addition to these field experiments, we will work with our team dedicated to economic and market studies (CTIFL, Paris), to:

1. study the perception of weed control practices by French fruit consumers and assess their willingness to pay for more virtuous practices
2. coordinate the production of economic models on each of the innovative strategies that will be tested in GOOD project. In a holistic approach, our Living Lab surrounds itself with a multidisciplinary professional steering committee, including representatives of production, industry, consumers, and policy makers ("Living Lab Board"). 

News from the Living Lab – France in april 2024

• 1rst meeting with the Living Lab Board

The French Living Lab Board of GOOD project met for the first time on 11/01/2024 around 10 participants, brought together in a holistic approach (apple growers, technical advisors and weed experts, representatives of equipment manufacturers, consumers, and public authorities). This first session was an opportunity for rich exchanges on the economic issues related to the adoption of agroecological practices for the weeding of fruit crops, and on the alignment of the project with the objectives of the Green Deal.

Several alternative techniques have been widely discussed by their users or experimenters (mechanical and mixed weed control, cover crops, false seed bed), concerning their implementation and their limits, from an agronomic, environmental, and economic point of view. 

The important role of the consumer and the need for work on the distribution of margins in the value chain were also widely discussed. The participants stressed the complexity of reconciling agroecological practices and the economic viability of the sectors, and the importance of considering the realities of the farms, and of alerting the public authorities about the difficulties encountered by the French fruit sectors in the current context. A few words from Living Lab professionals to sum up the key messages to be retained from this first meeting: be careful « not to have just an ideological vision », « not to seek to develop techniques that will cost the fruits grower even more », « regulating weeds in orchards without any herbicide is not as simple as it seems », « work in the real world otherwise there will be no more fruit sector tomorrow ». 

Planting the new experimental orchard plot (GPS). Measurement of tree trunk diameters (bottom right) 

• Planting a new experimental orchard

After a period of continuous and abundant rainfall that began in October 2023, our second trial orchard was finally planted on 19/03/2024 (604 mm from October to mid-March compared to 350 mm for the historical average). On a total of 3,364 m², and after an alfalfa crop which was destroyed in October, this plot includes 2 blocks of 7 rows of apple trees from the cultivar Story® Inored(cov) on Pajam 2® Cepiland rootstock, planted at 3.5 m x 1.5 m. They were planted by machine, with GPS guidance. These trees will be trellised, irrigated by aerial drip irrigation, and trained as vertical axis. 12 weed control strategies will be tested, compared to a no-weeded control: 6 strategies involving cover crops grown on tree rows (thyme, mint, grasses), 2 chemical strategies, 1 multi-year strategy combining herbicides and mechanical methods, and 1 strategy using only hoeing weeding. The first series of observations has begun, with the measurement of the size of the trees, which will allow us to assess the evolution of their vigor. On the orchard plot already in place (12 rows of trees out of a total of 5,586 m²), the first weeding interventions have been carried out, and routine monitoring continues... 

Plantation de la nouvelle parcelle d’essai (GPS).
Mesure des diamètres de troncs des arbres (en bas à droite)

• Search for robotic solutions

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