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Photo: Agroscope RAC Changins. COST 860 SUSVAR Sus tainable low-input cereal production: required var ietal characteristics and crop diversity. Working Group Meetings. WG 3 (soil and plant interactions). 4 participants working on microbial diversity in soil, biocontrol and breeding
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Photo: Agroscope RAC Changins COST 860 SUSVAR Sustainable low-input cereal production: required varietal characteristics and crop diversity COST 860 Workshop: Beneficial Below-Ground Interactions, Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane (NE), CH, 7-9 March 05
Working Group Meetings WG 3 (soil and plant interactions) • 4 participants working on microbial diversity in soil, biocontrol and breeding • Expectations to attend workshop: • Meeting colleagues to discuss, working together, important presentations and discussions • Collaborationsin the future • Considering STSMs maybe more at the end of the workshop COST 860 Workshop: Beneficial Below-Ground Interactions, Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane (NE), CH, 7-9 March 05
Working Group Meetings WG 4 (plant- plant interactions) • 4 participants working on allelopathy • Expectations to attend workshop: • Meeting colleagues to discuss, working together, exchange ideas, methods etc. • Collaborationsin the futurePossible future collaborations were discussed during the whole meeting. COST 860 Workshop: Beneficial Below-Ground Interactions, Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane (NE), CH, 7-9 March 05
Working Group Meetings WG 5 (plant disease complex) • Participants Martin Pastircak, Jozef Gubis, Valerie Cockerell, Marja Jalli, Timothy Paulitz, Hans Pinnschmidt, Susanne Vogelgsang, Mike Cook, Irène Felix, Eckhard Koch • xchange ideas, methods etc. COST 860 Workshop: Beneficial Below-Ground Interactions, Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane (NE), CH, 7-9 March 05
Working Group Meetings WG 5 (plant disease complex) • Susanne briefed about COST860 (aim, objectives, WG structure, previous meetings and workshops – Tune, DK; Witzenhausen, D) • Introduction round including background, expectations, and contributions:- Learn about seed- and soil-borne diseases, within context of genetics, resistance screening and breeding- New technologies for identifications of root and stem diseases ("messy diseases") – possibilities STSM?- Find out more about direct seeding in Europe and take back information e.g. for rating systems for soil-borne pathogens, future collaborations- Exchange of experiences and views with other people, what are common interests- Find ideas for funding of new projects- What are the main seed-borne diseases in Europe- Learn about effects of organic agriculture with respect to seed-borne diseases- Learn more about variety testing, i.e. Tilletia caries- Learn about this COST Action, explore ways to obtain funding COST 860 Workshop: Beneficial Below-Ground Interactions, Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane (NE), CH, 7-9 March 05
Summing-up, session 1 Major findings • Beneficial microorganisms manifest a high specifity regarding crops and cultivars • The positive effects of beneficial microbes are strongly dependent on environmental conditions, such as soil and climate (biotic and abiotic factors) • The occurence of the mycorrhizal symbiosis is rather unspecific, however the functionality is specific • Natural disease suppressiveness of soils is consistent over years • Great variation of pathogen suppression by single strain application COST 860 Workshop: Beneficial Below-Ground Interactions, Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane (NE), CH, 7-9 March 05
Summing-up, session 1 Implications for breeding • The question, if there is a need for special breeding programs for low-input systems is discussed controversially • If EU policy would change towards low-input systems, it would be recommeded • Open question: Varities bread under low-input conditions are expected to be better adapted taking profit from beneficial microbes COST 860 Workshop: Beneficial Below-Ground Interactions, Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane (NE), CH, 7-9 March 05
Summing-up, session 1 Implications for managing practices • Managing practices have a high capability to sustain indigenous beneficial microbes • Need for optimisation in this respect (e.g.: crop rotation, tillage, green manure, intercrops, fertilisation) COST 860 Workshop: Beneficial Below-Ground Interactions, Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane (NE), CH, 7-9 March 05
Summing-up, session 1 Implications for inocula use • How to stabilise beneficial effects of inoculants, e.g: • Multiple strain inocula (registration) • Crop, soil and substrate specific inocula • Improvement of formulation and inoculation techniques • Cost – benefit analysis under different agricultural policies COST 860 Workshop: Beneficial Below-Ground Interactions, Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane (NE), CH, 7-9 March 05
Summing-up, session 2 Session Soil and Seed-Borne Diseases Presentations/topics covered • Epidemiological aspects (spatio-temporal), effect of management practices & environmental interactions • Development and use of knowledge tools (threshold levels, modelling of life-cycle and damage relations) • Alternative control methods (i.e. physical, natural substances, MOs) Going beyond SUSVAR goals – comparing: • European and non-European agro-ecosystems • Cereals and other crops COST 860 Workshop: Beneficial Below-Ground Interactions, Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane (NE), CH, 7-9 March 05
Summing-up, session 2 Session Soil and Seed-Borne Diseases Discussion • Question: Why don’t we use chemical seed treatment instead of dealing with seed-borne diseases? – Because it offends the principles of organic farming (e.g. transparency, nearness, carefulness, i.e. side effects on beneficials) • Avoid seed-borne problems by development of seed material conventionally and use organic conditions only for production of final material • Technological help is needed in further development of alternative seed treatments, e.g. physical methods, plant extracts • Look for systems with a certain management history and subject them to various management methods: what type of changes occur? What can be learnt about dynamics of the system, e.g. with respect to soil-borne diseases COST 860 Workshop: Beneficial Below-Ground Interactions, Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane (NE), CH, 7-9 March 05
Summing-up, session 3 • Allelopathy session : • Allelopathy can offer promising alternatives for weed management in low input agriculture. • Different ways to exploit allelopathy for weed management (cover crop, ground cover, allelopathic crops,…). • Good bioassays are crucial for demonstrating allelopathy, especially to discriminate it from competition. • In several cases, the genetic basis of allelopathic capability has been demonstrated (i.e. high broad sense heritability in rice). • Interactions with microflora and mycorrhiza should be more investigated. • ·Exchanges of plant material could be promoted between labs with different bioassay protocols COST 860 Workshop: Beneficial Below-Ground Interactions, Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane (NE), CH, 7-9 March 05
Upcoming collaborations • STSMs: WG3, WG4 and WG5. • Common bunt: • evaluate and compare resistance against T. caries in multilocal essai. • Allelopathy: • Test allelopathic activity in old and modern wheat varieties. COST 860 Workshop: Beneficial Below-Ground Interactions, Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane (NE), CH, 7-9 March 05