Agroecological crop protection: towards international co-innovation dynamics and evidence of sustainability

ongoing

ACROPICS addresses the need for sustainable agricultural practices that use little to no harmful crop protection inputs. ACROPICS (1) reinforces 12 place-based co-innovation initiatives involving local actors implementing agroecological crop protection (ACP), (2) connects these initiatives to each other and to research & innovation teams worldwide, (3) produces scientific evidence of the sustainability of ACP systems, (4) supports these initiatives via international research and innovation actions, (5) highlights these initiatives at the international level, and (6) contributes to creating and training an intersectoral network of teams and (future) experts promoting ACP. ACROPICS associates 15 organisations (12 academic, 3 non-academic) with biological, ecological and social science expertise. It plans staff exchanges among academia, biocontrol industries and 12 sustainable agriculture systems (SAS) in 10 countries. Collaborative activities will (1) co-design and implement innovation strategies (coupling ecological, technical and organisational/institutional innovations in an innovation push/pull approach), (2) produce knowledge enabling ACP innovations (certification schemes, ecological infrastructures, etc.), and (3) produce sustainability assessments and communicate them to a wide range of stakeholders, from growers to policy-makers and investors. Expected results and impacts are: the creation of a core team of an emerging large-scale international initiative on ACP; drastic increases of sustainability in 12 systems covering main crop types and further impact on >100 similar systems worldwide via dissemination in connected networks; state-of-the art research results promoting ACP; training of future researchers with hybrid expertise adapted to the challenges faced by ACP; engagement of a large number stakeholders across food value chains; demonstration and exploitation of new innovations ranging from certification schemes to biocontrol products and services.