ROMA (ITALPRESS) – Innovation and sustainability in agriculture are necessary and strategic to address the challenges posed by climate crisis, the spread of parasites, abiotic stress and to ensure food safety in Italy and, more generally, in Europe. An important element of this transformation is biocontrol, i.e. the set of strategies and tools that use living organisms, natural substances or derivatives for crop protection. Solutions already available but still marginal in the toolbox available to farmers and that, also for this, need policies and incentives that support their development according to an integrated approach. By adopting this orientation, it is possible to reduce the environmental impact and ensure high-quality productions where bioprotection techniques and tools are importantly integrated into the ecological transition indicated by the EU and respond to the growing demand by consumers of foods with an increasingly high health profile. The urgency of having access to new biocontrol solutions is strongly felt by the agricultural sector, also in response to the significant reduction of traditional instruments currently available on the market.
An appeal that has been accepted by the European Commission in its ‘Vision for Agriculture and Food’, the long-term strategy for a more sustainable, competitive and socially responsible European agriculture, presented last February by the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, Christophe Hansen. Through a new legislation, currently under review, the Commission aims to overcome the current gaps in EU Regulation 1107/2009, introducing a clear definition of biocontrol, and measures to make access to the European market more streamlined, faster and uniform. This is a crucial step to ensure farmers with easier access to bioprotection solutions that could be decisive for the entire agri-food chain and attract the next generation of agricultural entrepreneurs to a technologically advanced and sustainable sector. A trend that sees Bayer actively contribute to the offer of biocontrol solutions, whose agropharmaceuticals are also allowed in organic farming, enriching in a tangible way the tools supplied to farmers. This is the theme that will be deepened at the conference “Biocontrollo. The new frontiers of agricultural productions of quality, healthy and sustainable” – promoted by UniVerde Foundation, University of Naples Federico II and National Network Agricultural Institutes – Re.N.Is.A. with the sponsorship of CREA (Council for Research in Agriculture and the analysis of the agrarian economy) – which will be held in Rome, Wednesday 28 January 2026, 10:00, at Parlamentino Cavour of the Ministry.
The conference will be opened by the introductory interventions of: Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio (President of the UniVerde Foundation), Matteo Lorito (Rector of the University of Naples Federico II), Patrizia Marini (President Re.N.Is.A.) and Maria Chiara Zaganelli (Director General of the CREA). He will follow the keynote speech of Minister Francesco Lollobrigida (Ministro dell’Agricoltura, della Sovereignità Alimentare e delle Foreste). The program continues with the specific session on “Technical and Biocontrol Strategies” by Patrick Gerlich (Delegant of Bayer Crop Science Italy). To follow, the panel “Sustainability, quality and health of agricultural productions” with the interventions of: Luca De Carlo (President of the Permanent Commission Industry, Commerce, Tourism, Agriculture and Food Production, Senate of the Republic); Patty L’Abbate (Commission Environment, Territory and Public Works, Chamber of Deputies); Dario Nardella (Coordinator S&D Group – Member of the Commission for Agriculture and Rural Development, European Parliament); Maurizio Martina (Director General Added of the FAO); Paolo Tassani (President of Agrofarma Federchimica – Confindustria). Modera: Francesca Sancin (Journalist RAI and writer). Media partners: Askanews, Italpress, TeleAmbiente, Opera2030.
– photo print office Univerde Foundation –
(ITALPRESS).
