SYNAPTIC : a territory project for better local management of late blight

SYNAPTIC (SYNergie des Acteurs pour la Protection Territoriale Intégrée des Cultures de pommes de terre contre le mildiou), led by ARvalis-Institut du végétal and involving four other partners (Chambre d’Agriculture Nord Pas-de-Calais, FREDON Hauts-de-France, INRAE  and Junia ISA / Yncrea),  is a three year project funded under the French pesticide reduction plan s Écophyto II+. It  is a three year project, started in January 2021.

SYNAPTIC, based on participatory research mobilising a wide range of  stakeholders (growers, hobby gardeners, extension specialists, researchers, etc…) and backed by the Lille Metropolis (Métropole Européenne de Lille), , aims to demonstrate that combining control means into Intregrated Pest management schemes, with special emphasis on the management of primary inoculum and early infections and territorial approaches, allows significant reduction in the use of pesticides for an effective management of late blight outbreaks.

The territory chiosen for SYNAPTIC is that of the Lille Metropolis (MEL), the largest agricultural metropolis in France (45% of its area is used for agriculture, and hosts over  750 farms). This territory, combining both urban and peri-urban agriculture, is therefore perfectly suited to federate and create interactions between local stakeholders linked by i) a common interest in a crop widely grown locally and with a strong local cultural value, potato, and ii) a common goal – reducing as much as possible the use of pesticides in plant health management. The participatory dimension is critical for the success of SYNAPTIC, be it to effectively track early infections and subsequent pathogen movement between crops and gardens. It will also allow to identify the most suitable means, but also the barriers and levers for their adoption, to be integrated in renewed cropping management practices effective to control epidemics

The project includes several groups of actions, aiming at :

- Identify primary  inoculum , and track the onset of epidemics. It is within this frame that was developped the BlightSurveyor/VigiMildiou app.

- Identify, through field enquiries and dialogue with  local actors (growers, home gardeners, etc…), the barriers to adoption of new parctices and the means to favour it ;

- Setup and lead a network of ‘pilot sites’ for the implementation of IPM strategies:

- Communicate the objectives, results and outputs of the project towards all relevant actors and stakeholders.