Results from analyses of existing European DSS Access to existing DSS New European DSS EU regulation and DSS

By participants in the ENDURE IA2.4:

• Per Rydahl, AU (co-ordinator - per.rydahl@agrsci.dk)
• Antonio Berti, CNR
• Nicolas Munier-Jolain, INRA
• Jorgen B Nielsen, AU
• Jens G Nielsen, AU
• Huub Schepers, WUR
• Geert Kessel, WUR
• Ole Q Boejer, AU

It is well known that weeds, pests and diseases are not homogeneously distributed in time and space and need to be controlled on different levels in different cropping systems. Different control measures may be selected, and control intensities may be applied. Consequently, rational pest management is a complex and challenging task to decision makers, who are often farmers and advisors.

To control pests in conventional farming in Europe, pesticides play a major role. Often, farmers follow "best practice" recommendations provided by advisors on regional level, which differentiate between only a few set of conditions on a field level, which are considered to be of major importance. In order to achieve robust pest management in all fields, such recommendations have to be relative conservative and consequently, why most fields will receive more intensive pesticide treatments that required, while fields with special pest problems will probably not be controlled to satisfactory levels.

A common idea behind many computer based Decision Support Systems (DSS) for crop protection is to accumulate, structure and disseminate such complex information, and thereby support decision making, which integrate up-to-date information with actual conditions in time and space. In theory, such DSS should offer a more robust pest control with a relatively lower input of control measures as compared to best practice recommendations.