The project aims to drive European viticulture towards more efficient, sustainable, toxic-free crop protection, through reducing and even eliminating the use of xenobiotic compounds in plant protection products (PPPs). The project is coordinated by an Italian company, Natural Development Group, located in Castel Maggiore (Bologna) already very active in the field of fertilizers. The mission of the Natural Agro project is to adopt agricultural production, particularly for vines, more respectful of the environment by developing an effective and sustainable strategy to fight against parasitic diseases. Based on the importance, in particular economic, of the cultivation of grapevines in Europe, the project aims to reduce the use of pesticides and fertilizers by proposing a new innovative solution to the current market. As viticulture is one of the most profitable activities in the EU, covering a land area of about 3.2 million hectares, winegrowers face two key challenges in making the practice sustainable and environmentally safe. Furthermore the misutilization of grape biomass, which is incinerated on-field, resulting in excessive emission of GHGs and the excessive usage of chemical pesticides in grape production represent a negative management of the viticulture . Winegrowers are dependent on the use of chemical pesticides as grapevine is susceptible to many fungal diseases, such as Downy Mildew (DM) and Grapevine Trunk Diseases (GTD), which have the potential to cause serious crop damage and substantial economic losses to EU winegrowers.

As the primary treatment of such diseases, Copper (Cu) intensive PPPs are considered the most important antifungal product in organic viticulture. However, the dependence on Cu PPPs is of urgent concern, due to the increasing, toxic accumulation of Cu in soil and water, and its potential assimilation into the fruit, with severe impact on human health.

LIFE Natural AGRO

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LIFE Natural AGRO

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