TOPPS (Train the Operator to Promote best Practices and Sustainability) is the demonstration project initiated by the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) and its partners and which focuses on promoting Best Management Practices for the use and application of pesticides in a sustainable way in order to protect natural water resources.

The overall objective of this multi-partner EU-wide demonstration project is to reduce pesticide point and diffuse source contamination in water at a European scale. Within this project, project partners and stakeholders will develop further EU Best Management Practices (BMPs) to mitigate diffuse sources and which will complement the already developed and existing BMPs for point source contamination. These commonly agreed BMPs will be promoted through various information, training, demonstration and dissemination activities, including cooperation and exchange with stakeholders.

TOPPS (Train the Operator to Promote best Practices and Sustainability) is the demonstration project initiated by the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) and its partners and which focuses on promoting Best Management Practices for the use and application of pesticides in a sustainable way in order to protect natural water resources.

The overall objective of this multi-partner EU-wide demonstration project is to reduce pesticide point and diffuse source contamination in water at a European scale. Within this project, project partners and stakeholders will develop further EU Best Management Practices (BMPs) to mitigate diffuse sources and which will complement the already developed and existing BMPs for point source contamination. These commonly agreed BMPs will be promoted through various information, training, demonstration and dissemination activities, including cooperation and exchange with stakeholders.

Together with the BMPs developed to reduce water contamination from point sources (TOPPS project co-financed under the EU Life programme ((LIFE 05 ENV/B/000510), which was one of the best Life Environment Projects 2009) a set of BMPs for diffuse source mitigation will be offered for broad water protection targeted to advisers, operators and other stakeholders.

The project fits into current legal EU initiatives (such as the Water Framework Directive and the Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides). It will provide an innovative, consistent and harmonized implementation toolbox, including risk analysis tools to reduce point and diffuse (such as from field runoff or spray drift) source contamination. To date, clearly defined and common agreed EU BMPs to prevent diffuse sources do not exist in EU Member States.

The project work promotes the different diffuse sources and point source mitigation measures in EU countries taking into account the current knowledge and expertise. The project outcome, by the intrinsic nature of the proposed BMPs and risk mitigation measures will create additional benefits such as increased biodiversity and retention of nutrients.

In addition, TOPPS activities which focus on diffuse source mitigation complement several other LIFE+ projects dealing with water protection, such as the ARTWET project (LIFE 06 ENV/F/000133) and the initial TOPPS project addressing point source contamination (LIFE 05 ENV/B/000510).

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) sets the direction for Europe that water bodies have to meet the “good chemical status” in 2015. Under the WFD the River Basin Management Plans are to take into account mitigation measures for point and diffuse sources. Indeed, the only way to prevent inappropriate agricultural practice and lack of effective and practical mitigation measures at local level is to promote, inform, to train and to demonstrate Best Management Practices, hence facilitating behavior change through knowledge transfer.

A common EU approach to prevent diffuse pesticide pollution of water bodies; such as proposed by TOPPS, ensures that recommendations and guidelines for water protection define a coherent standard among EU Member States, which secures fair competition within a sustainable agricultural production system in the European Union.

Point sources are considered to contribute more than 50% of water contamination for pesticides. The initial TOPPS project (funded by the European Union Life programme and by ECPA (European Crop Protection Association) was aimed at identifying Best Management Practices and disseminating them through advice, training and demonstrations at a larger co-ordinated scale in Europe with the intention of reducing plant protection products (PPP) point sources contamination of water.

The initial TOPPS was a 3-year, multi-stakeholder project. It started in November 2005 and covered 15 European Countries structured in 4 clusters (North, Midwest, East and South Europe).

In the first year of activity, Best Management Practices (BMPs) on how to avoid point sources had been prepared and have been officially presented at EU level in February 2007. On the basis of these BMP guidelines, training courses for intermediaries were and are still activated in the demonstration farms established in the countries involved in the project. TOPPS demonstration stands are arranged to disseminate TOPPS activities at main agricultural European exhibitions.