ANVE received the invitation to participate in the Committee of Stakeholders of the scientific research project HORIZON 2020 on Xylella fastidiosa funded by the European Commission. The project, called XF-ACTORS “Xylella Fastidiosa Active Containment Through a multidisciplinary-Oriented Research Strategy”, intends to develop a multidisciplinary program in response to the urgent need for additional prevention strategies, early detection and control of Xylella fastidiosa. The goal is to develop a comprehensive strategy for the integrated management of serious illnesses linked to the bacterium, with the intent to prevent their spread and reduce the economic, social and environmental problems. The Partnership is composed of a worldwide professional network that includes the most excellent research centers, associations and, for the Italian nurserystock industry, ANVE. In total there are 29 partners from 14 countries around the world including, in addition to those in the European Union, Taiwan, United States, Costa Rica and Brazil. The Stakeholder Committee is made up of national and international plant protection services, as European political and institutional representatives, from nursery associations and those involved in media outreach. Committee activities are crucial to the implementation of the executive work plan, to provide training and communication plans, to promote and stimulate the use of the project results, to support demonstration activities or field trials by identifying the most suitable conditions . The project, with a duration of four years, will be developed in ten work packages and sees a contribution of European financial resources amounting to 6.9 million euro. ANVE will certainly make its contribution to the necessary tests to be applied in the field as well as to make available its partnerships with international organizations with which it collaborates. The emergency Xylella finally begins to be evaluated across the board thanks to the integrated research involvement, the institutions and the productive world.
The Project
Activities
The expected actions to be performed will include identifying and selecting the most commercially important ornamental plant species susceptible to this bacterial infection, establishing experimental plots with healthy nursery plant material, identifying suitable tools for transporting the species being researched, and the communication and dissemination of the results.
Goal of the project
The project’s goal is to establish production protocols for species not currently cultivated in the defined area and environmentally sustainable protocols to defend against the vector insect. Results will be completely available and free of charge to any business in the sector. The preparation of production and defense protocols will be signs of a recovery in the production sector and of the national and international marketing of ornamental plants. The results of this research will assist producers in continuing operations as they were before to the advent of this emergency.