Conference on Environmental Science and Technology

Weeds present a major challenge to the sustainability of farming systems in the EU with herbicides currently playing a dominant role in their management. Reducing herbicide use and mitigating associated risks have become central objectives of the EU’s Farm to Fork strategy, which advocates for agroecology and the shift toward more sustainable and resilient farming systems.The GOOD project, a four-year project funded by Horizon Europe, supports this transition by promoting agroecological weed management across Europe and beyond. The project has set up 16 Living Labs (LLs) in six pedoclimatic regions across nine countries (Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Netherlands, Serbia, and Latvia). These LLs form the Agroecological Weed Management Network (AWMN). The LLs cover a variety of crops, including annual (cereals, vegetables, legumes) and permanent crops (olives, grapes, fruits), across conventional, organic, and mixed farming systems. The aim is to create conditions for effective agroecological weed management, and to support this transition, GOOD has assessed stakeholder perceptions of various weed management strategies. This communication will describe stakeholder perception of herbicides and agroecological weed management in arable crops.