GOOD-Agroecology for Weeds: Building an Agroecological Weed Management Network

Abstract

Weeds negatively affect the sustainability of farming systems in the European Union (EU), the management of which relies heavily on herbicides. The EU's farm-to-fork strategy aims to promote agroecology and the transition to sustainable and resilient farming systems, including the reduction of herbicide use. GOOD is a 4-year project that takes a multidisciplinary approach and aims to create and evaluate agroecological weed management (AWM) systems, and demonstrate that the adoption of such a system will improve the sustainability and resilience of farming systems across Europe and beyond. This objective will be achieved through the development, evaluation and demonstration of innovative combinations of AWM using cover crops, beneficial microorganisms and digital tools. This will be carried out in living-labs, co-created with stakeholders in 6 different EU pedoclimatic regions, including annual and perennial crops and conventional, organic and mixed cropping systems. The combination of innovative and socio-economically validated sustainable agroecological practices will generate social, economic and environmental benefits through the reduction or elimination of chemical inputs and optimized use of natural resources GOOD will create an Agroecological Weed Management Network (AWMN), inviting agroecology practitioners from all continents to dialogue and exchange knowledge and best practices towards diversified agroecology-based farming systems.