Fertilisation and Irrigation  Inital members: - Rodney Thompson (Spain): temporary animator - Micheline Verhaeghe (Belgium): temporary secretary - Danny Callens (Belgium) - Leif Nett (Germany) - Kristina Ugrinovic (Slovenia) - Norbert Laun (Germany) - Priit Poldma (Estonia) - Carolina Martinez Gaitan (Spain) - Antonios Chrysargyris (Cyprus) - Laura Prieto Munoz (Spain/Belgium)

Fertilisation and Irrigation Participants - President: To be determined - Secretary: To be determined

Fertilisation and Irrigation Objectives: To create a forum for active researchers in fertilisation and irrigation, in EU and H2020 associated countries To facilitate interaction, information exchange, and collaboration between researchers To facilitate formation of consortia for submissions for EU and other projects To participate in agenda setting of future EU research programs

Fertilisation and Irrigation Issues to be addressed regarding fertilisation: o Effects on water quality Contamination with nutrients: N and P Increasingly strict application of relevant EU Directives o Increasing recent attention to P Limits on organic P addition Revision of interprepation of soil test results o Issues related to limits on application of organic amendments Negative effects on soil quality Disease suppresion o Grower attitudes Growers are generally conservative; often older Reluctant to consider and adopt new practices Many have small operations with limited financial capacity for newer equipment

Fertilisation and Irrigation Issues to be addressed regarding irrigation: o Limited water supply, particularly in southern Europe Requirement to optimise water use efficiency Use of alternative water supplies e.g. residual water, grey water o Water quality Optimizing management of moderately saline water Effective use of water with high concentrations of certain elements e.g. B o Leaching of nutrients Reducing drainage; collecting drainage, recycling drainage o Conservative farmer attitudes o High cost of new technologies o Effective use of sensor technologies More information on threshold values e.g. Protocols for establishing Sharing information on threshold values e.g. for matric potential sensors Procedures to establish threshold values for volumetric soil water content

Fertilisation and Irrigation Actions: To invite active researchers in fertilization and irrigation of veg. crops, in EU and H2020 associated countries Prepare list of members showing current research activities and interests Encourage and facilitate exchange of information between researchers Contribute to strategic agenda statements to the European Commission concerning future research and innovation topics related to vegetable crop production Have an annual meeting

Fertilisation and Irrigation  Meeting date or period: Annual meetings First in 2016  Comments: Will also include fertilisation of organically-grown vegetable crops