PENFA (2022): Pesticide ENvironmental Fate Analysis
Funded by DEMETER Open Call #2 DEPLOY
The accumulation of plant protection chemical products (PPPs) in crop fields increases risks to biodiversity and human health. Collecting agro-environmental field data in order to feed pest infestation risk index prediction algorithms that are tailored to the biological behavior of specific pests and diseases can support the farmer in performing more optimized and timely accurate interventions. The dominant practice for the farmers in order to identify current MRL, is through inference based on the calculation of days among last application of the PPPs. However, applied pesticides dissolving process is affected by many parameters including the current conditions of the plant (e.g. stress levels, vigorousness) combined with the overall environmental conditions. As it is obvious there is a need for more efficient and rapid extraction of hard evidences on current MRLs with the use of mechanisms that will be easily utilized by the farmer/agronomist. PENFA project aims at integratinge state-of-the-art technical means for optimising forecast capabilities of pesticide residue break down in relevancy with the micro-climatic conditions and specific critical plant growth stages. In addition, it aims at providing an agro-enviromental data-driven, interoperable, pest & diseases prediction solution tailored to greenhouse vegetable crops (e.g., tomatoes) for South Europe climate where farms are subject to high levels of pest and disease pressure.