Integrated weed and pest management for European pesticide reduction: insights from the IWMPRAISE and SUPPORT research projects, by Per Kudsk

Reducing pesticide use and risks is a key policy objective in the EU. The EU aims to reduce the use and risks of pesticides in general by 50% by 2030 and a wider adoption of IPM is crucial to achieve this goal but the adoption of IPM by European farmers is lower than anticipated. 

Several EU projects have been initiated over the last 15 years. The objectives of these projects are diverse. Some projects focus on providing novel IPM tools to farmers while others focus more on understanding what hinders and what promotes IPM adoption. 

In this presentation Prof. Per Kudsk will present outcomes of the completed project IWMPRAISE that focused on the development of novel integrated weed management strategies and the ongoing project SUPPORT focusing on how the uptake of IPM can be supported. 

Per Kudsk is Professor and Head of the Crop Health Section at the Department of Agroecology at Aarhus University in Denmark. He has done research on various aspects of integrated weed management. He has coordinated and been a partner in several national and international research projects in the EU, Africa and South America. 

He served as President of the European Weed Research Society from 2008 to 2009. In 2014, he was appointed Honorary Member of the Weed Science Society of America. He is often involved in providing research-based policy support on crop protection issues to relevant Danish authorities. 

He has authored or co-authored more than 130 papers published in peer-reviewed articles and as book chapters. He edited the book ‘Advances in integrated weed management’ published in 2022. He has been an invited speaker at more than 25 international conferences.

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