To comply with the wishes of the participants, this year’s Plant Protection Day on 19 October was organised as a conference at which the problems of environmentally friendly grain and legume production were discussed. The conference covered a wide range of topics, including the practical importance of grain and legume production in sustainable agriculture, the role of soils, and the use of bacterial preparation in integrated crop protection.

Special attention was turned to plant diseases, pests affecting legumes (peas and beans) and the potential of winter wheat as a natural host for hymenopteran parasitoids – the natural enemies of plant pests.

Enn Lauringson from the LIFE AgriAdapt project ‘Sustainable adaptation of typical EU farming systems to climate change’ talked about the potential of follow-on crops in sustainable farming. Eha Kruus gave an overview of the new situation resulting  from the changes in the local climate  and also talked about the activities carried out within the framework of the project and the interviews they have conducted with crop producers.

The event was designed for everybody engaged in producing and processing agricultural products or managing agricultural land. There were 141 participants. Discussions were moderated by Marika Mänd, the head of the Plant Protection Department. The Plant Protection Day is an annual event, organised with the aim of bringing together agricultural producers, specialists, business people, scientists, officials and other people influenced by or interested in the field to enable discussions between stakeholders and also to increase general awareness of the latest issues in plant protection and plant health in agricultural production.

The reports from the conference (in Estonian) have been published on the website of the Estonian Plant Protection Society. They are available here: http://eestitaimekaitse.emu.ee/et/ettekanded/taimekaitsepaevad/xxvi-taimekaitsepaev/