Design and customization of an innovative Decision Support System (DSS) for Integrated Weed Management (IWM)

Project information
Partners from Denmark, Spain and Germany are involved in the project DSS-IWM which will run from 2016 to 2018. The project will provide decision support system for weed control in maize and winter wheat. Farmers and advisors as the main target groups can use the system via web portals which already exist for integrated pest management (e.g. ISIP in Germany). The project will also define the business conditions for ISIP and IPMC in order to make sure that DSS-IWM will be available and supported in the long run. Farmers will benefit from economical savings in input of herbicides by maintaining a high efficacy and market profit. These economic effects are accompanied by positive environmental effects due to reduced herbicide dosages. DSS-IWM will design and customise an innovative, online DSS IT platform which will be long- term supported. The main results of the new scheduled project will be: a) DSS-IWM is ready to online use for weed control in maize and winter wheat b) DSS-IWM provides reliable decisions including national conditions c) DSS-IWM considers thresholds for weed densities d) DSS-IWM includes economic calculation on treatment costs e) DSS-IWM offers mechanical options wherever possible f) DSS-IWM facilitates herbicide resistance management Based on recent research work on many different regional prototypes of decision support systems for herbicides a number of gaps and research needs could be identified. For example dose-response functions have to be validated under field conditions in maize and winter wheat. Furthermore specific tools like economic calculations or resistance management have to be added to DSS-IWM. Finally, we aim to select and improve the best test version or strategy for practical applications. For feasible purposes and dissemination we will demonstrate the DSS-IWM for farmers and advisors on field days and exhibitions. First experiences and results will be published in relevant national journals for farmers and for similar interesting groups. We also expect feed-back by farmers and advisors organised by meetings or web-based queries. There is an additional opportunity to publish the findings of the project in a more scientific manner in international journals, as well as presentations on national and international conferences.
Project partners: 
Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI)
Information System for Integrated Plant Production (ISIP)
IPM Consult Ltd (IPMC)
University of Lleida (UdL)
Project dates: 
January 2016 to December 2018
Contact
Contact person: 
Arnd Verschwele
Contact email: 
Contact organisation: 
Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI)
Funding
Funding agency: 
Coordinated Integrated Pest Management in Europe
Total budget: 
k€331