R2D2

For several years now, farmers in the Plateaux de Bourgogne region have been faced with technical impasses, particularly when it comes to controlling damage caused by autumn rapeseed insects (winter flea beetles, terminal bud weevils), which have developed considerable resistance to pyrethroid insecticides. What's more, since the ban on neonicotinoids, aphid risk management on cereals has become more difficult.

Against this urgent backdrop, the local challenge is to restore high, stable levels of production and profitability through resilient cropping systems, as part of a sustainable agriculture approach. All the region's agricultural players share the need to initiate profound changes in production methods and pest management strategies.

The R2D2 project is a territorial project. It aims to support 10 farmers in implementing an agro-ecological management strategy for crop pests across an area of 1,300 ha. The principle is a combination of agronomic levers in the field to boost crop robustness, and innovative practices and landscaping to encourage auxiliary insects and discourage crop pests. The aim is to move away from chemical, individual, curative pest management at plot level to concerted, preventive management on a regional scale, combining agronomy with the principles of conservation biological control.

On a regional scale

• Increase biological regulation by limiting the unintended effects of agricultural practices on auxiliary fauna and increasing habitats and food resources for crop auxiliaries.
• Manipulate the behavior of pests on a regional scale to reduce their populations and crop damage (flea beetle trap intercropping technique).

At farm plot level

• Avoid the presence of pests by adapting sowing dates
• Increase crop robustness using agronomic levers to limit the harmfulness of pest attacks.