Abstract
Organic fruit growers often suffer economic losses due to insect damages. The available natural pest control products are not always effective; and most important: many organic fruit growers would prefer not to use any pesticide at all. Growing flowers in order to gain more natural enemies, and hence less pests is a technique called Functional Agro-Biodiversity (FAB). Ongoing research in this CORE Organic Plus project aims to collect existing knowledge and generate new knowledge in order to use FAB successfully in orchards. Introduction The aim of the project is to assess how far functional agrobiodiversity (FAB) can reduce pest damage and pesticide use in organic apple orchards. The main expected outcomes of this project are to develop innovative and practical tools to design and manage organic orchards. The focus is given on the creation and management of flower strips in the alley ways. This increase of FAB will consolidate the resilience of the orchards. Methods will be developed in close collaboration with growers which will increase the chance for a successful on-farm implementation. The project investigations will take place in nine different countries in Europe (Table 1) and the outcome will be relevant for growers in the whole EU region.