SLU news

Meeting in Portugal on using ecosystem services to optimize crop protection and production

Published: 11 November 2019

The EU project EcoStack has had its first annual meeting in October at the University of Coimbra in Portugal.

EcoStack is an EU-project with a budget of 10 million Euros that will span five years. The project started at the end of 2018 and SLU is one of 24 partners. The aim of the project is to use ecosystem services to optimize crop protection and production.

– Ecostack is an interdisciplinary project that focuses on how we can manage beneficial organisms in agriculture. We hope to be able to fully exploit biodiversity at different levels and develop new agricultural methods, says Hanna Friberg, one of the researchers in the project.

During 15-17 October, the participants of the project had their first annual meeting. The meeting was arranged by Paolo Sousa and the EcoStack research group at the University of Coimbra. Around 60 researchers participated in the meeting. SLU was represented by Ingvar Sundh, Hanna Friberg, Velemir Ninkovic and Merlin Rensing. Hanna and Velemir contributed with presentations of ongoing research in their various work packages.

– During the meeting we also had a consultation meeting with stakeholders that provided very good input, says Ingvar Sundh.

Facts:

The full name of the project is “Stacking of ecosystem services: mechanisms and interactions for optimal crop protection, pollination enhancement, and productivity“. The overall objective of EcoStack is to develop and support ecologically, economically and socially sustainable crop production via stacking and protection of functional biodiversity. By designing and implementing integrated systems for ecostacking, the project will contribute to a long-term sustainability of agriculture and food production.


Contact

hanna.friberg@slu.se, 018-671876

ingvar.sundh@slu.se, 018-673208