Food and Agriculture FA Domain Committee MONITORING PROGRESS

Food and Agriculture (FA) Domain Committee MONITORING PROGRESS REPORT 2006 3 rd DC meeting, Antalya (TR), 31 Jan – 2 Feb 2007

COST Action 864 Domain Food and Agriculture (FA) Combining traditional and advanced strategies for plant protection in pome fruit growing CSO approval date 14/06/2005 Entry into force 15/01/2006 End date 15/01/2011

Protecting plant health is the key to providing consumers with an abundant choice of healthpromoting, superior-quality fruit

864: Combining traditional and advanced strategies for plant protection in pome fruit growing Participating Countries : 20 Chair : AT BE, CH, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, HU, IL, IT, LU, NL, NO, PL, SE, SI, TK, UK Non-COST: none Economic Dimension: 100 Million € Duration: 5 years

864: Combining traditional and advanced strategies for plant protection in pome fruit growing Action Chairman: Karl Stich, Technische Universität Wien, Institut für Verfahrenstechnik, Umwelttechnik und Technische Bio-wissenschaften, Getreidemarkt 9/1665, 1060 Vienna, AUSTRIA, kstich@mail. zserv. tuwien. ac. at Action Vice chairman: Brion Duffy, Agroscope Changins. Wädenswil, Swiss National Competence Center for Fire Blight, Postfach 185, Schloss, CH-8820 Wädenswil, SWITZERLAND, duffy@acw. admin. ch Action rapporteur: Dr. Nicolas IOANNOU Agricultural Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment P O Box 22016, 516 Nicosia, Cyprus Phone +357 22 403206, Fax. +357 22 316770 ioannou@arinet. ari. gov. cy Karl Stich Nicolas Ioannou Science officer: Bouktje Stol Administrative officer: Christophe Peeters Bouktje Stol

Action website: www. cost 864. eu

OBJECTIVES The main objective of the Action is to network scientists, practitioners, governmental agencies, and small companies to co-operate on the establishment of i) a deeper understanding of the major disease and pest constraints on apple and pear and ii) to develop integrated and sustainable orchard systems for delivering high-quality, healthy pome fruit to European consumers while at the same time promoting ecologically-sound agricultural practices current assessment

Four Working groups WG 1: Plant-Pathogen Interactions Chairman: Dov Prusky, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan 50250, ISRAEL, dovprusk@volcani. agri. gov. il Vice chairwoman: María Milagros Lopez, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA), 46113 Moncada, SPAIN, mlopez@ivia. es Dov Prusky WG 2: Germplasm Resources and Breeding Chairman: Markus Kellerhals, Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil Apple Breeding Laboratory, Postfach 185 CH-8820 Wädenswil, SWITZERLAND, markus. kellerhals@faw. admin. ch Vice chairman: Andreas Peil, Federal Centre for Breeding Research on Cultivated Plants (BAZ), Institute for Fruit Breeding, D-01326 Dresden, GERMANY, a. peil@bafz. de Markus Kellerhals

Four working groups WG 3: Crop Protection Chairman: Emilio Montesinos, University of Girona, Institute of Food and Agricultural Technology, Campus Montilivi, 17071 Girona, SPAIN , emonte@intea. udg. es Vice chairman: Piotr Sobicezwski, Research Institute of Pomology and Floriculture, 96100 Skierniewice, POLAND, psobicz@insad. pl Emilio Montesinos WG 4: Germplasm Resources and Breeding Chairwoman: Viola Hanke, Federal Centre for Breeding Research on Cultivated Plants (BAZ), Sciences, Institute for Fruit Breeding, Pillnitzer Platz 3 a, P. O. Box 55, D-01326 Dresden, GERMANY , v. hanke@bafz. de Vice chairwoman: Margarete Welander, The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Crop Science, 23053 Alnarp, SWEDEN, margareta. welander@vv. slu. se Viola Hanke

Results achieved to date The first year concentrated on the successful establishment of the Action Including the preparation of information material - Selection of a logo to visually identify this Action - Creation of Action’s Homepage - Preparation of a brochure - Generation a poster for general advertisement of the Action on relevant conferences and the conducting of a survey to obtain an overview of the expectations and requirements of European researchers working in this field - Received over 140 responses - Surveys were systematically evaluated - Results delivered import impacts for the implementation of the Action

Results achieved to date The first year concentrated on the successful establishment of the Action including the preparation of information material and the conducting of a survey to obtain an overview of the expectations and requirements of European researchers working in this field and the performance of a combined WG meeting on 20 -21 November in Vienna - which established the first steps in the future implementation of the workplan

Assessment with respect to the original timetable Postponed by MC due to budgetary reasons

Dissemination of results Workshops and conferences: STATE OF THE ART IN POME FRUIT HEALTH, held Vienna 20 -21 November 2006 Abstract book demonstrating the State-of-the-Art in Pomefruithealth Research, which collected contributions from European researchers from more than 15 countries (ISBN-10: 3 -200 -00811 -3) The book and many of the posters are also electronically available on ww. cost 864. eu Publications related to the Action: -over 110 articles in peer-reviewed journals -ober 80 contributions to conferences and symposia S&T co-operations/contacts in the ERA: ISBN-10: 3 -200 -00811 -3 ISBN-13: 978 -3 -200 -00811 -3 ISAFRUIT (FP 6 -2004 -FOOD-3 -A T 5. 4. 1. 1 )/ HEALTHYHAY (FP 6 -035805)/ECPGR Malus and Pyrus database/ Hi 2003 -0358/

Self evaluation Main successes - high responses to the survey - fruitful combined WG meeting Any drawbacks? None Any difficulties? None

Future plans Any departures from the original workplan? None Dissemination plan for 2007 -publish standard protocols developed by the working groups on the website -make Action’s output available to the broad European community by posting presentations and posters of working group meetings on the homepage -distribute the knowledge in scientific papers, trade publications and protocols for advisory services -inviting all participants to acknowledge financial support benefit from COST via a general statement in the acknowledgements section of their publications -inviting participants to support the COST office to increase the visibility of COST in the media

Conclusions Cost Action 864 has started successfully Activities for 2007 were planned according to the critical budget timeplan (gap due to the switch from FP 6 to FP 7) and have already started Highly enthusiastic researchers from 20 countries have started their co-operations and future activities Thank you for your attention!