Agronomy for Sustainable Development - Call for Papers: Virtual Issue on Research highlights towards Chemical Pesticide-Free agriculture

Current crop protection in EU agriculture heavily relies on chemical pesticides to control weeds, pests and pathogens. European authorities, consumers and citizens are calling for a drastic reduction in the use and impact of chemical pesticides. The European Green Deal has set new targets and defined a roadmap with multiple strategies, including Farm to Fork and Biodiversity 2030. Ambitious targets have been set for agriculture and food, namely the goal of reducing by 50% the use and risk of chemical pesticides, as well as the use of more hazardous pesticides, by 2030.

This ambitious objective will require an in-depth change with new approaches based on prophylaxis, agroecology and the commitments of the sectors, but also major breakthroughs in the conception of new agricultural systems where crop protection does not rely only on the application of chemical pesticides.

In this Virtual Issue of Agronomy for Sustainable Development (ASD), we want to explore the latest scientific advances providing insights and solutions to pave the way for an agriculture with much less chemical pesticides and ultimately with none at all. We will include articles on four main scientific domains:

・Bio-inspired management of Crop
・HealthGenetics and breeding of new cultivars for new services
・Cropping system and agrotechnology
・Agri-food system transformation, societal adoption and public policies.

Contributions including inter- and trans-disciplinary approaches are welcome.

Contributions will be sought from (but are not exclusive) the French EU Presidency Seminar “What research to meet the pesticides reduction objectives embedded in the European Green Deal?”  co-organized by the French Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), the French Priority Research Program “Growing and Protecting Crops Differently” and the European Research Alliance “Towards Chemical Pesticide-Free agriculture”.

Important dates

First call for manuscripts: 1 June  2022
Submission closure: 30 November 2022
After the peer-reviewing process, manuscripts accepted for publication before December 2023 may be included in the virtual issue.

Submission process

Manuscripts within the scope of ASD (this opens in a new tab) should be submitted online  (this opens in a new tab)as regular articles (review and research articles) and should follow the journal submission guidelines (this opens in a new tab). The cover letter submitted with the manuscript should have the following heading: “submission to the 0-pesticide Virtual Issue.” Manuscripts will be handled by guest associate editors and peer-reviewed as regular articles. If accepted, they will be published in the journal before being gathered in the virtual issue.

Guest Editors

Frank Ewert, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Müncheberg, Germany frank.ewert@zalf.de (this opens in a new tab)  

Ewen Mullins, Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authorithy, Carlow, Ireland, Ewen.Mullins@teagasc.ie (this opens in a new tab)

Florence Jacquet, Inrae, UMR MOISA, Montpellier, France, florence.jacquet@inrae.fr (this opens in a new tab)

Christian Huyghe, Inrae, Agriculture Scientific Director, Paris,France, christian.huyghe@inrae.fr (this opens in a new tab)

Fabrice Martin-Laurent, Inrae, UMR Agroécologie, Dijon France, fabrice.martin@inrae.fr (this opens in a new tab)

Agronomy for Sustainable Development (ASD) (this opens in a new tab) is an international peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes original experimental, empirical and theoretical research articles, review articles and meta-analyses leading to enhanced sustainability for agricultural and food systems. See the full aims and scope of ASD here (this opens in a new tab).