AGROECOL 1 AGROSOIL Agro-Ecological Soil Optimization for Integrated Weed Management

In European cropping systems, most weed management practices rely on herbicides and/or intensive tillage. However, these practices have great environmental impacts and may negatively affect soil quality and the soil microbiome. AGROSOIL project uses a Living Lab approach to co-create and co-implement agroecological weed management strategies that manage weeds by utilising and supporting the soil microbiome. In a Living Lab approach, agro-ecological research is combined with real-world experimental settings where farmers, researchers, and other stakeholders collaboratively create, implement, evaluate and refine sustainable soil and weed management practices. This will support the transition to a more ecologically based crop production with less reliance on chemical inputs and intensive tillage. AGROSOIL is a 3-year EU project coordinated by the Julius Kühn Institute (Germany) with eight partners from Norway (Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO)), Spain (University of Lleida and National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology), Sweden (Research Institutes of Sweden), the Netherlands (Wageningen University and Research and Wageningen Research), and Germany (Julius Kühn Institute- Institute for Plant Protection in Field Crops and Grassland and Institute for Epidemiology and Pathogen Diagnostics).

In European cropping systems, most weed management practices rely on herbicides and/or intensive tillage. However, these practices have great environmental impacts and may negatively affect soil quality and the soil microbiome (SM). Reducing the reliance on these practices is one of the key ways to make crop production more environmentally and socioeconomically sustainable. So far, transitioning to agroecological weed management (AEWM) at the farm level is hampered by knowledge gaps and insufficient practical evidence. AGROSOIL will use a living lab (LL) approach to co-create and co-implement AEWM strategies that manage weeds by utilising and supporting the SM. This will support the transition to more ecologically-based crop production with less reliance on chemical inputs and intensive tillage. This project will explore the beneficial potential of soil and plant microbiomes, integrating functional and ecological principles into practical AEWM strategies. The objective is to foster a significant shift towards agroecology across Europe by 1) optimising the diversity and functionality of the SM through AEWM, 2) identifying soil-microbial communities and pathways that support AEWM and 3) developing holistic AEWM systems that significantly reduce chemical inputs and tillage-intensity and support ecosystem services and beneficial biological interactions within agro-ecological cropping systems. The project intends to build and strengthen regional networks of stakeholders in a LL setting to promote the adoption of AEWM. In the LLs, agro-ecological research is combined with real-world experimental settings where farmers, researchers, and other stakeholders collaboratively create, implement, evaluate and refine sustainable soil and weed management practices. This participatory methodology ensures that innovations are not only scientifically sound but also practically viable and tailored to the diverse needs of European crop production systems.