With the publication in the Federal Gazette of February 7, 2020, the “Guidelines for Integrated Plant Protection in Hop Cultivation” developed by the Institute for Plant Production and Plant Breeding of the Bavarian State Institute for Agriculture and the Association of German Hop Growers e.V. were included in the national action plan for the sustainable use of plant protection products.
The guidelines impressively show how the hop industry has systematically minimised the use of chemical pesticides for many years by promoting and using natural control mechanisms and by establishing monitoring systems for pest control.
As already reported in the follow-up to the “Global Hop Summit” symposium jointly organised by the hop and brewing industries in Brussels, integrated plant protection is an important pillar of the reorientation of hop cultivation against the background of global and political climate change in the entire agricultural sector. Not only since the petition for a referendum “Save the Bees” have all possibilities been exhausted at the Hop Research Centre in Hüll and in the agricultural hop-growing advisory service to limit the use of chemical plant protection agents in hop production to the necessary extent and to prevent the occurrence of critical infestation or disease situations by suitable measures. Therefore, all arable and plant cultivation measures which aim at establishing and maintaining healthy and productive hop stands and counteracting infestation by harmful organisms are part of the instruments of integrated plant protection.
The guidelines are available online at
available. As long as stocks last, we will be happy to send you the guidelines free of charge as a coloured DIN A4 brochure.
