EU Pollinator Week is an event that focuses on the importance of pollinators for healthy ecosystems, our wellbeing, and culture. In 2021, it will be an online event held on 27-30 September with the theme "A New Deal for Pollinators".  The 2021 EU Pollinator Week is organised by Members of the...

Maria Tekülve, the Deputy Head of Division and Focal Point for Rural Development and Agroecology at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) reflects on the role of agroecological approaches in international cooperation in an interview with Silvia Richter for the International Journal for Rural Development. The material reflects Maria Tekülve's personal opinion. ''A significantly...

This report, elaborated in the frame of EU-funded LIFE project OREKA MENDIAN (2016-2022), focuses on how human activities can support sustainable management of mountain grasslands in Europe. Today, more than 75% of the grassland area in the EU-28 is considered to have an unfavourable conservation status. The widely negative picture of...

Compost is part of the natural cycle. It is a result of mi¬crobial decomposition of dead organic matter in the presence of oxygen (aerobic conditions). The repeated application of compost on arable and vegetable fields does increase soil organic matter content as well as the microbial diversity and abundance of...

The new Commission starts its mandate with high ambitions thanks to the new European Green Deal. Our first objective is to make Europe climate neutral by 2050. But, this must be accompanied by much wider environmental initiatives, starting with a new EU Biodiversity Strategy. Adopted in April 2017, the EU...

It is estimated that the total number of small farms in Southern European (SE) countries has decreased by 33% between 2010 and 2019. This loss is despite the widespread acknowledgement and appreciation of the important role that small farms play in supporting rural livelihoods, conserving biodiversity and maintaining traditional landscapes,...

Despite the raise of awareness on the use of pesticides during the last 30 years, pesticide industries grew up thanks to the lack of information about the real damage these products could cause on the environment, human health and on producers’ incomes. The lack of knowledge using large and small...

Desde que comenzó el confinamiento por la covid-19, hemos cambiado el hábito de nuestra compra de alimentos y esto afecta tanto a quien los produce como a quien los consume. Por un lado, han aumentado las cuotas de mercado de las grandes cadenas de supermercados; quienes perpetúan un sistema de aprovisionamiento...

Como práctica, la agroecología propone el diseño y manejo sostenible de los agroecosistemas con criterios ecológicos (Altieri 1995, Gliessman, 2002) a través de formas de acción social colectiva y propuestas de desarrollo participativo que impulsan formas de producción y comercialización de alimentos y demás productos agroganaderos que contribuyen a dar...

A sustainable food strategy is key to achieving the goals of the EU’s Green Deal. This strategy sets out the regulatory and non-regulatory measures needed to create more efficient, climate-smart systems that provide healthy food, while securing a decent living for EU farmers and fishermen.

Black bean aphid - Aphis fabae Scop. is a polyphagous species, attacking over 200 plant species: ornamental shrubs, represent primary hosts (such as the spindle tree - Euonymus europaea, Viburnum shrubs, or the mock-orange Phyladelphus coronarius) and herbaceous plants (celery for seed production, spinach, beans, corn, poppy, sugar beet, are...

Common bacterial blight caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. phaseoli is a very important disease of field bean in many regions of the world and can lead to high losses of production (25 to 60%). The bacterium is primarily transmitted through infected seed. Xanthomonas can survive over 15 years in seed...

Trees have traditionally been an integrated part of European farmlands and bringing them back could be part of an answer to some of our pressing environmental challenges. Asger Mindegaard and Celia Nyssens walk the readers through the forest of opportunities for more agroecological farming provided by agroforestry in Portugal. Herdade do...

LEADER is one of the longest standing, most successful and popular European-wide initiatives. This EU Rural Review explores how the seven LEADER principles are interpreted today by people who have been deeply involved with implementing LEADER in rural communities across Europe. The articles show how the principles work in practice, how they...

Czech organic farmers talk about the importance of agroecological approaches, community and the crole of the farmer in our society. (where language is Czech there are English subtitles)

Weeds threaten crop yield and quality. Developing and promoting non-chemical weed management techniques can help reduce the risks linked to the use of herbicides which can impact non-target organisms, the environment and animal and human health. In this EIP-AGRI Focus Group, experts worked together to identify alternatives including redesigning cropping systems,...

The background for conducting country study on the challenges, needs and constraints of smallholders and family farms in the Republic of Serbia has been a wish to further strengthen the Regional Initiative on Empowering Smallholders and Family Farms and develop it towards a stronger programmatic approach at both the regional...

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, farmers face various issues to continue feeding people but also to find alternative distribution channels for their products. With the closure of markets in many countries and the shift of consumer demand to certain types of products, such as flour and eggs, different...

In February 2020, during the first plenary session of the recently renewed European Committee of the Regions (CoR) members adopted the opinion “Towards sustainable neighborhoods and small communities – Environment policy below municipal level” by rapporteur Gaetano Armao (IT/EPP). Euromontana is pleased to see that the rapporteur integrated its suggestions...

According to the FAO Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS), cereal production in 2019 and the estimated closing stock in 2019/20 are both near record highs and supplies in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) and around the world are estimated to be sufficient. As a result, global cereal markets...