Have your say on disease-resistant varieties and IPM in Irish tillage

IPMorama is inviting people across the Irish tillage sector to take part in a survey about how disease-resistant crop varieties can support Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Dan Milbourne, Research Officer at Teagasc Oak Park outlines what’s involved.

Funded by Horizon Europe, IPMorama is advancing the development of disease-resistant crop varieties and their integration into integrated pest management (IPM) strategies.

The project is developing decision support (DSS) tools that use landscape level monitoring networks to factor in  interactions between varietal resistance and pathogen variability/distribution. This information feeds into decisions on fungicide application that maximise the effectiveness of the resistant variety in an approach called ‘vulnerability mapping’.

This ‘vulnerability mapping’ IPM approach can protect fungicides from breakdown whilst reducing their overall use, consequently lowering input costs whilst increasing the useful lifespan of fungicides.

The project focuses on rust disease in wheat, late blight in potato and diseases of grain legumes. Early experiments in potato have demonstrated the potential for between 45 – 100% reduction in spray application for late blight, whilst maintaining complete disease control.

Have your say

We need your help to tell us what the bottlenecks for the adopting resistant varieties are, whether and how you would like to learn about vulnerability mapping informed DSS tools, and what practical support would make variety-centred IPM more workable on farms and across the supply chain. We are interested in your perspective no matter what crops you are interested in or which part of the crop production industry you come from.

All it takes is 12-15 minutes of your time to fill in a short survey. Your responses will help IPMorama understand the needs and priorities of different stakeholder groups. The findings will inform a knowledge-sharing framework and practical resources tailored to those groups, such as literature, training modules, practical guidance and videos, to support the use of resistant varieties within IPM.

No specialist knowledge of plant breeding or IPM is required.

All you need to do is:

• Scroll through the background information describing the survey.
• Provide consent and answer seven generic questions.
• Then you will be filtered into a series of 9 – 12 questions based on the stakeholder group that you select.

Responses will be anonymised before analysis and reporting, so individual answers will not be identifiable in project outputs. If you choose to provide an email address to receive project updates, it will be collected separately from your survey responses.

Visit here to take part in the  IPMorama stakeholder survey.

Alternatively, scan the QR code below to access the survey:

Your experience can help shape practical information and resources for the Irish tillage sector and support the development of sustainable, variety-based approaches to crop protection.