Best4Soil - Boosting 4 BEST practices for SOIL health in Europe

The impacts of soil-borne diseases and pests on vegetable crops have been studied for several decades across Europe. Several natural methods of combating these diseases have been described and this knowledge has been carefully saved on websites, scientific and technical journals within each country. To share these achievements across Europe, researchers from the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as an Austrian organic producer, have set up the Best4Soil network, which is funded by the EU. This network brings together research and experimentation institutes, associations and producers from twenty European countries. The CTIFL represents France in this large network. The aim of the project is to provide practically applicable information on four methods of controlling soil-borne diseases :

• The use of compost and organic amendments
• The sowing of green manures and cover crops
• Biological soil disinfection
• Crop rotations

These techniques are already used in some countries. The use of green manures is, for example, common in France but not in other European countries. Anaerobic soil disinfection (also known as ASD), on the other hand, is only used on small areas, including in the Netherlands, where this method was developed. It is therefore essential for practitioners to share knowledge and experiences relating to these methods. Thus, the Best4Soil network allows regular exchanges between practitioners, farmers and advisers, as well as with researchers and trainers. Project representatives are present in each country.

The project made it possible to translate and present a large amount of information relating to the following agroecological practices: use of composts and organic amendments, use of green manures and cover crops, biological soil disinfection and crop rotations.

On the site www.best4soil.eu all resources and results of the project are available: technical data sheets, videos, database.

A European webinar made it possible to present these different tools to the professionals concerned.