Project tasks

The demonstration project „Exclusion netting for managing Spotted Wing Drosophila in fruit crops” is a project of the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL). The Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE) function as project promoter.

The Julius Kuehn-Institute (JKI) coordinates the network and the different production areas. Additionally, the JKI supports the activities of the plant protection services of the Federal German states, where the project supervisors are located. As a research institute, the tasks of JKI are the cross-company evaluation, the knowledge transfer and the public relations of the project.

The plant protection services of the Federal German states supports the demonstration farms with the implementation of exclusion netting for managing Spotted Wing Drosophila in fruit crops. The project supervisors are in close contact with the operating managers and collects regularly data from demonstration farms.

Additionally, the JKI, Institute for Strategies and Technology Assessment, analyse the economic feasibility of already installed nets against the Spotted Wing Drosophila, especially in cherry, raspberry, blackberry and blueberry. Therefore, parameters on investment and maintenance costs, labour input, crop yield and crop quality are to be assessed by interviews and investigations and then economically evaluated.

Knowledge transfer and public relations (i.e. farm seminar, short films, leaflets) are important measures, which are initiated by the plant protection services in cooperation with the demonstration farms and the JKI.