In June 2024, HelEx took part in a European Commission outreach activity under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), dedicated to promoting pollinator-friendly farming practices across the European Union. The session brought together farmers, research organisations and EU institutions to explore how cropping systems, and sunflower in particular, can be adapted to better support pollinators while safeguarding productivity and farm income.
Representing HelEx, Daniel Dalton (Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, CUAS) presented how the project approaches pollinator-friendly sunflower cultivation as a system, from genetics and floral resources to field management. Because sunflower is a mass-flowering crop that blooms in mid-to-late summer, a period when natural pollen is often scarce in the landscape, it plays a strategic role for managed honeybees and wild pollinators alike. HelEx’s work highlights how varietal choice, flowering phenology and nectar traits can make a measurable difference to pollinator health and to pollination-driven yield.
The exchange with CAP policy officers and farming representatives was an opportunity to connect ongoing HelEx science with the operational levers of the CAP: eco-schemes, agri-environment-climate measures, and support for biodiversity-friendly cropping. Participants discussed how research results on pollinator-aware sunflower breeding and monitoring could feed into practical recommendations for farmers, advisors and policymakers, contributing to the EU’s broader objectives on biodiversity, ecosystem services and sustainable agriculture.
For HelEx, this EU-level engagement is part of a wider dissemination strategy aimed at making sure the project’s outcomes reach not only the scientific community, but also the institutions and stakeholders shaping the future of European farming.
