Preparatory monitoring of the demonstration areas
The action will last one year and during its lifetime the selection and the preparatory monitoring of the three demonstration areas will take place. This is considered significant in order to (1) record the practices adopted by the farmers to address med fly threat and (2) measure fruit infestation percentage from the conventional practices of protection against the med fly population and then to evaluate the impacts of these practices on farm environment (soil quality, biological diversity, pesticides use and management) as well as on the production (generated cost, amount and quality of fruits, percentage of fruiting infestation).
Two citrus orchards of 1ha each (one will be used for pilot tests and the other as control field in which conventional protective practices are followed) will be selected early on after project start and one citrus orchard of 10 ha which will be selected early on after the end of action B1. AUTH and UTH, in cooperation with SSIA, will undertake the selection and renting of the three orchards in the island of Chios (North-East Aegean), where the demonstration actions B1 and B2 will take place. The island was selected because AUTH and UTH have carried out extended field experiments in the island in the past with the use of conventional practices against med fly and also with the use of other commercial attractants. By this way, the already developed database will be available and the benefits of the innovative attractant, Biodelear, will be appreciated.
For the implementation of the demonstration actions of the project and the use of the innovative products a permit from the Hellenic ministry of Rural Development and Food is needed. The coordinated beneficiary will apply for the permit to the above ministry. According to the legislation, after the application for the permit the respective ministry assigns to the Benaki Phytopathological Institute (BPI) the assessment of the procedures and the products proposed. BPI, which is also a beneficiary of the project reports to the Ministry regarding the appropriateness of the products. Thereafter the Ministry provides the permit. The fact that the BPI is the responsible Institution for the permits ensures that prior the application all procedures and products would have been assessed (at the extent of their maturity) and accordingly conformed in order to ensure safe use for farmers and the environment. The cost for the permit is 500€ and will be paid from the overheads of the project. The time of receiving this permit is almost one to two months after the date of application.
The three fields will be monitored for:
1. Med flies, in order to determine the number of med fly population present before the implementation of the protective implication with 5 Jackson traps having as attractant the Capilure (a male med fly attractant) for each orchard. Measurement of infestation percentage during the conventional way of protection will be performed, as well. UTH will undertake these analyses.
2. Soil quality in order to assess the initial status of soil before the implementation of the demonstration activities. Soil would be examined by three ways: a) by measuring the physical characteristics; b) by measuring the chronic toxicity caused in higher plants due to conventional practices against med flies in order to indirectly asses the status of soil biological diversity and c) by measuring the soil biological diversity directly, using pit fall traps. For this, soil samplings will take place two times during the lifetime of the action. It is estimated that:
- almost 20 soil samples will be collected and analysed from each one of the two pilot citrus orchard (of 1 ha), and
- 30 to 35 soil samples will be collected from the 10 ha citrus orchard.
Soil samples will be analysed for: structure; texture; pH; electrical conductivity; total salts; moisture content; saturation percentage; exchangeable cations/anions; nutrient content (N, P, K); organic matter; available Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn; B; CI-1; P04-3; S04-2; N03-1 " and pesticide residues. Soil sampling, will be carried out by following the general sampling rules and schemes. Samples will be carefully stored, preserved and transported to laboratory. Chemical and physical analyses will be carried out following standard soil analysis methods. The laboratory of SSIA, accredited according to ISO 17025, will undertake the above analyses.
Biological diversity in the ecosystem will be determined at the beginning (before the implementation of the protection of the three citrus orchards against med flies) and during the whole duration of the project, using standard methods such as soil biological diversity with pit fall traps and by the conventional way of measuring the biological diversity in the canopy of the citrus trees, such as the use of a knock out insecticide method in the canopy of the tree to measure directly the biological diversity. The above task will be implemented in the three orchards with 10 pitfall traps for each citrus orchard of 1 ha and 100 pitfall traps of 10 ha and five repetitions for the 1 ha and 50 repetitions for the 10 ha (at the beginning and at the end of the action B1 and B2) with the knock out insecticide method use for each orchard. AUTH and UTH will undertake these analyses while the assessment of the results will be performed in cooperation with SSIA.
Since the implementation of the innovative Biodelear is anticipated to significantly reduce the use of plant protections products, it is important to record this progress. Thus, plant protection products, such as pesticides or pesticides residues and plant growth regulators, will be measured at the three demonstration citrus orchards before and after the completion of the implementation of the demonstration actions. The Phytopathology Institute of Benakio (PIB) will be the responsible beneficiary for collecting the fruit samples and carrying out the examination/analysis of the above plant protection products. The identification analyses will be carried out with sensitive scientific techniques (G.C.-M.S. or G.C.-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS) based on the QuEChERS method (EN 15662).
During this action, 720 plant samples will be collected and 1440 analyses will be carried out in order to assess the initial status of the pilot fields. Plant samples will be analysed for the possible presence of 334 drastic compounds plus the existence of 19 acidic plant protection products and plant growth regulators. The sampling will take place in the following way: The 1st sampling will take place in the two experimental citrus orchards of 1 ha at the beginning of the project in the first year, by dividing the areas in 60 plots, meaning 4 trees per plot and from each tree 3 fruits will be collected, so 12 fruits in all will correspond to one sample plot (sample=plot). Therefore, from the above, the 120 samples will correspond for both the pilot and the control citrus orchards equally (60 for pilot and 60 for control The 2nd sampling will take place in the third year of the project before the implementation of the protection of the demonstrating citrus orchard of 10 ha and the sampling would be carried out in the same way as above and the obtained number of samples will be 600 (sample=plot).
3. Practices against med flies, product's quality and yield. An inventory will be created in which all available data regarding the practices against med flies that were/are implemented will be recorded. Data regarding general pest management, as well as production data (costs, incomes) as well as, percentage of infestation of the crops will be recorded as well. This inventory will significantly assist the scientist to develop the Integrated Strategy (IS) of the following actions (B1 and B2) while at the same time it would be easy to perform comparison between the proposed methodology and the conventional ones, at any time. Inventory data will be used for the evaluation of monitoring indicators of the project (Actions C1) and will be also web available.
The data that will be collected during this action is crucial because:
The targeted areas will be precisely characterized regarding soil quality, biological diversity, identifying previous use of plant protection products in the demonstrating orchards, fruit infestation and med fly population by the use of conventional ways and thus, the initial status of the areas will be determined (point zero)
This initial collected data and parameters will be evaluated and compared with the results of the demonstration actions regarding the improvement of soil parameters as well as, the overall improvement of the area due to the use of the proposed attractant and the implementation of an integrated management plan against med flies.
The data would be used in dissemination plans and would help scientist to present project achievements and thus challenge farmers and involve stake holders to adopt the innovative attractant and the proposed Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategy.
Constraints and assumptions:
No specific constrains are expected since soil sampling and analyses are procedures in which SSIA has many years of experience. Similarly, UTH and AUTH have a lot of many years of experience in monitoring med fly population, in estimating the biological diversity in the ecosystem and the fruit infestation with the use of conventional practices. It is assumed that 12 months of monitoring are enough to identify the current conditions of the control and pilot areas. In the same sense, no specific constrains are expected since fruit sampling and analyses to identify plant protection products are procedures in which the Phytopathology Institute of Benaki (PIB) has many years of experience.
Beneficiary responsible for implementation: SSIA
Responsibilities in case several beneficiaries are implicated: AUTH, UTH, BPI
Expected results (quantitative information when possible):
1. Determination of the fruiting percentage of the tested citrus orchards before the implementation of Biodelear.
2. Determination of the med fly population before the implementation of Biodelear protection against the med fly in the three pilot citrus orchards.
3. Inventory of the pilot area -Recording and evaluation of environmental status of the pilot area and assessment of any adverse effects (Biological diversity-Pesticides residues). The inventory will be web available.
4. Risk analysis of the pilot area (Report)
Indicators of progress:
1. Collection and analysis of 40 + 40 + 60 to 70 soil samples -A total of 2800 to 3000 analyses (20 soil parameters of each soil sample). (Collection 40+40 soil samples will be completed from June of 2014 to August of 2015 for the two (2x1 ha) pilot citrus orchards). (Collection 60 to 70 soil samples from June of 2016 to August of 2017 for the 10 ha citrus orchard)
2. Collection and analysis of 720 change it accordingly samples -A total of 1440 analyses (checking 334 drastic compounds plus 19 acidic plant protective and plant regulating growth compounds). (Collection from August of 2014 to the end of December of 2014 for the two 2x 1ha citrus orchards) (Collection from August of 2016 to the end of December of 2016 for the 10 ha citrus orchard)
3. Completion of the pilot areas inventory (web available). (For the (2x 1ha) two citrus orchards results the web available information will be informed from December of 2017 to January of 2018) (For the 10 ha citrus orchard results the web available information will be informed from December of 2018 to January of 2019)
4. Completion of risk analysis of the pilot areas. (From December of 2016 to August of 2017 for the two (2x 1ha) citrus orchards) (From December of 2018 to June of 2019 for the 10 ha citrus orchard)
5. Acquisition of a permit for the implementation of the protection of the 12 ha citrus orchards from the Med Fly from the Ministry of Agricultural and Food Development (from June to August of 2014 the permit will be obtained)
Action A1: Production of traps and attractants <- PREV ΝΕΧΤ->Action B1.: Implementation of innovative Med traps at pilot scale
