Launch of the IPMorama R&D project on integrated pest management using innovative wheat, potatoes and the grain legumes varieties
The Kick-off meeting of the Horizon Europe IPMorama project held in Dublin, Ireland, under the aegis of Teagasc | Agriculture and Food Development on 3-4 October 2024. This 4-year project, worth €5 million, brings together 17 partners from 10 European countries. The common goal is to improve the state of the art in variety-centric Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for important diseases in the wheat (rust pathogens), potatoes (blight) and the grain legumes soybean (the Diaporthe/Phomopsis complex DPC fungi), pea (broomrape) and white lupin (anthracnose). GEVES’ expertise in genetic resistance assessment and epidemiological monitoring will be deployed in this project. All information is available on the project’s website, as well as on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
GEVES will be mainly involved in 4 tasks on wheat and potato:
- by participating in the monitoring of the deployment of resistance in European wheat and potato varieties, via the updating of the European VCU database (DiverCILand), created by INRAE for soft wheat, and the development of similar databases for durum wheat and potatoes.
- by managing the sampling of isolates from sentinel varieties in the European VCU and breeders’ networks, in order to strengthen epidemiological surveillance for yellow, leaf and stem rusts in wheat and for late blight in potatoes.
- by participating in the analysis of the stability of resistance over time and space
- by contributing to integrated pest management validation trials focusing on varieties, by testing wheat varietal mixtures, to ensure the reduction of the epidemiological development of yellow rust and the sustainability of the main sources of resistance.
