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The TOPPS project is characterised by six executive tasks:
1) Inventory of management practices and implementation tools across the EU (where are we now?)
2) Development of interdisciplinary expertise on Plant Protection Products & point source contamination of water
3) Development of Interregional training and demonstration centres and tools
4) Implementation of a generic strategy on safe use of Plant Protection Products. The focus is on avoiding point source
contamination by professional agricultural PPPs users.
5) Scaling up of a generic multi-stakeholder approach for a sustainable strategy on safe use of Plant Protection
Products at Member States’ level.
6) Dissemination of project results within the TOPPS community and beyond.
(1) Inventory of management practices and implementation tools
This task can be summarised by the question "where are we now in the EU?" TOPPS has started with drawing an inventory of available materials, publications and demonstration tools in the various countries. These materials will be evaluated with respect to their contribution to the development of a generic guideline. All materials will also be documented in an expert database. The inventory approach will focus on operations and field studies conducted for monitoring and stewardship activities. These will be evaluated with respect to their benefit of contributing to the overall target to reduce point source contamination.
Parallel to the inventory task, an address database will contain details of organisations and individuals working on the objective to reduce contamination with Plant Protection Products.
The database is web-based and will facilitate the sharing of expertise and knowledge. Stakeholders, and other parties interested in the inventory process and development of the address database are invited to support this task and can contact the respective partners in their country or country cluster. If your organisation wishes to be involved, please contact info@topps-life.org. We appreciate and welcome your interest! (2) Development of interdisciplinary expertise on Plant Protection Products point source contamination. The major tool that TOPPS will develop is a common guideline on how plant protection products can be used safely. In order to achieve this, TOPPS will use the output of the inventory of best management practices collected Europe-wide. The output of this inventory will be the base for a European common guideline. The guidelines will focus on 7 main critical processes on and around the farm: transport and storage of plant protection products, before, during & after spraying and residue disposal management and post harvest processing issues. Three change levels will be included: behaviour, technology and infrastructure. The guideline development is centred on a "European Core" which should be considered as being essential and generic to prevent point source pollution. Around this generic core, a second shell of specific requirements and specifications are added to include climatic or crop specific situations. Guidelines will specify recommended procedures and technical and infrastructural options to avoid point source contamination in the short and long term. The objective of achieving a common European guideline on how to prevent point source pollution will find its culminating moment at the European Stakeholder workshop on TOPPS to be held on 7th February 2007. At that workshop, achievements and solutions to issues encountered during the TOPPS project will be presented. Once a common ground is established among stakeholders, these guidelines will be disseminated in all European Countries via a communication plan that has been designed for that purpose. Based on the guidelines, the following tools are to be developed: - checklists to support the safe use of Plant Protection Products with regard to water, (3) TOPPS interregional training and demonstration centres and tools. To communicate these guidelines, 9 interregional training centres and demofarms are set up and equipped in Italy, Spain, UK, France (2), Belgium, Germany, Denmark and Poland. Trainings will mainly be directed towards intermediary persons and organisations that have regular contacts with operators of spray equipment. Demonstration farms will be established to show: (4) Implementation of a generic strategy on the safe use of Plant Protection Products
- a training framework which will be used for seminars and demonstrations.
- appropriate daily routines,
- adapted technical tools
- and infrastructural improvements
that work under field conditions.
Trainings will focus both on short, mid and long term solutions to promote sustainable improvement.
5 Pilot catchment areas are selected to implement the TOPPS approach in practice:
- Utrata river catchment in Poland;
- Tanara river catchment in Italy (Piemonte);
- Stevern & Halter catchment in Germany
- Yser catchment Cross border France & Belgium
- Bygholm catchment in Denmark
Three out of these are new (Italy, Denmark, Poland); one is a catchment area with a long tradition in stewardship and stakeholder approach (Germany). The French - Belgian catchment pilot area is new in its cross country approach.
These catchment areas will be used to demonstrate the change management. In each catchment
- a training centre,
- a demofarm and
- a help desk
will be set up.
In each selected catchment area, an inventory will be made at the beginning and at the end to see how the technical, infrastructural and the behaviour aspects have changed towards a sustainable best management practice. Where available, monitoring results will be used to measure the success. Guidelines will be promoted for routine application through intensive training and extension. Training is aimed at intermediaries such as extension services, machine and agrochemical dealers.
(5) Scaling up of a generic multi-stakeholder approach for a sustainable strategy on safe use of Plant Protection Products at Member States level
Based on the inventory process conducted for field studies and stewardship projects, key success factors will be identified. TOPPS will deliver a blue print on how monitoring and stewardship projects could be designed and executed.
(6) Dissemination of project results
TOPPS results will be reported through various media to get the message to the identified target groups. Each partner has developed a communication plan to ensure proper dissemination. Various tools can be used such as the TOPPS website, the partners or stakeholders websites. "Traditional" ways of communication are included: farm press, professional magazines, oral presentations on various events, stakeholder newsletters.
TOPPS will develop one demostand per cluster to be used at various agricultural shows, events, field days etc. Likewise, they are to be offered to companies or organisations for their ‘field days’ to provide target audiences with best practise on pollution preventing measures.
