Past and future of sustainable viticulture in Switzerland

Abstract

Switzerland is a pioneer country in the development of integrated production (IP) and integrated pest management (IPM). The overall goal is sustainability at the ecological, economic and social level to produce high quality grapes. In 1993, the IP-IPM head-organisation VITISWISS was created. The starting points were the improvement of pest management by the biocontrol of spider mites and the control of grape berry moths by mating disruption and an optimal soil management, followed over the years by state-of-the-art sprayer calibration, development of disease forecasting models (AgroMeteo, VitiMeteo), leaf-area adapted dosage of plant protection products, enhanced biodiversity, water and cover crop management. The efforts and the results gained in a continuous education process by the growers are considerable, but not enough for consumers and politics concerned by the use of plant protection products. The absence of acaricides and insecticides as well as forecasting systems available on the internet (www.agrometeo.ch) for the control of downy and powdery mildew, represent the major progresses. Where mechanisation is possible, herbicides can progressively be replaced by mechanical technics, which is not possible in steep vineyards. The general irrational unscientific trend against “synthetic” plant protection products requests alternatives for the control of fungal diseases and for cover crop management under the vine rows to avoid excessive water-nitrogen competition particularly in the actual context of climate change.

Nudging farmers towards low‐pesticide practices: Evidence from a randomized experiment in viticulture

“…The former are known for their favorable enological characteristics, while the latter carry agronomic benefits in the form of resistance genes to fungal diseases, mostly against powdery and downy mildews, and gray rot (Pedneault & Provost, 2016). Consequently, fungus‐resistant varieties allow a reduction of fungicide treatments in vineyards by around 80% (Pedneault & Provost, 2016; Rousseau et al, 2013; Viret et al, 2019), but they may face other challenges, for example, marketing, vinification or potentially lower drought resistance (Finger et al, 2022; Lamarque et al, 2023). Currently, uptake of fungus‐resistant varieties remains low, for example, in Switzerland, the share of land devoted to these varieties was 2.8% in 2021 (Bundesamt für Landwirtschaft [BLW], 2022a; Pertot et al, 2017).…”

“…We test whether providing personalized information about the environmental toxicity of the fungicides used changes farmers intentions to plant fungus‐resistant grapevine varieties. We target the adoption of fungus‐resistant grapevine varieties for wine making because they represent the most effective strategy to reduce pesticide use in vineyards, as they require significantly fewer fungicide treatments, without affecting the quantity and quality of production (Viret et al, 2019).…”

“…We test whether providing personalized information about the environmental toxicity of the fungicides used changes farmers intentions to plant fungus-resistant grapevine varieties. We target the adoption of fungusresistant grapevine varieties for wine making because they represent the most effective strategy to reduce pesticide use in vineyards, as they require significantly fewer fungicide treatments, without affecting the quantity and quality of production (Viret et al, 2019). 1 While a rich body of literature investigates factors that affect farmers' decisions to use more sustainable farming practices in agriculture overall (see Dessart et al, 2019 for a review of behavioral factors), and discussions on the potential role of information treatment and nudges for agricultural policy have been initiated recently (e.g., Colen et al, 2016), more evidence especially from information treatment experiments on the uptake of sustainable farming practices is needed to tailor policy designs (Lefebvre et al, 2021).…”

Short supply chains and the adoption of fungus‐resistant grapevine varieties

“…Previous studies identified a large possible effectiveness of cultivars that have increased resistance to fungal pressure (referred to as fungus‐resistant varieties in this paper) to reduce fungicide use in vineyards, while maintaining quantity and quality of production levels and possibly reducing yield losses due to high fungi pressure (Montaigne et al, 2016; Viret et al, 2019). This aspect is relevant for both conventional and organic wine production because the application of both synthetic and non‐synthetic fungicides, including the widely used organic fungicide copper, have strong negative effects on the environment and need to be reduced drastically to meet pesticide policy goals (e.g., Mackie, Müller, & Kandeler, 2012; Reiff, Ehringer, Hoffmann, & Entling, 2021).…”

“…Fungicide applications in the here studied grapevine production systems in Switzerland are expected to be reduced by ca. 80% if fungus‐resistant varieties are adopted (Viret et al, 2019). Along these lines, Rousseau, Chanfreau, and Pozzo Di Borgo (2013) report possible reductions of fungicide use in France by 60%–90% due to fungus‐resistant varieties.…”