History of the Working Group on Integrated Control in Oilseed Crops
The history of the working group ´Integrated Control in Oilseed Crops´ (ICOC) goes back to the seventies of the last century.
In 1979, a study group split away from the working group ´Integrated Control in Brassicas´, led by Tom Coaker, which focussed mainly on the cabbage root fly (Delia radicum).
Bent Bromand, a Danish entomologist (Danish Research Centre for Plant Protection), tried together with his Swedish colleague, Christer Nilsson (Swedish University of Agriculture), to establish a separate working group on ´Integrated Control in Oilseed Rape´. This working group was founded in 1982. In the meantime (1979-1982), it had the status of a study group. Both study and working group were led by Bent Bromand.
During 1979-1988, Bent Bromand organized four workshops of the group (refer to the WG Chronicle). He resigned his convenorship in 1988 and was followed by Volker Paul (University of Paderborn, Germany).
The new convenor Volker Paul was in his honorary position between 1988 and 2003. He was assisted by Ingrid Williams (Rothamsted Research, United Kingdom), who led the entomology subgroup, which was established during this time. Ingrid Williams and Volker Paul organized twelve group/subgroup meetings within this time period (refer to the WG Chronicle). In 1990, the group decided to expand its activities from oilseed rape to other oilseed crops and to change its title to the ´Working Group on Integrated Control in Oilseed Crops´. During 1988-2003 Volker Paul and Ingrid Williams edited seven IOBC/wprs Bulletins together with assisting colleagues. They resigned their convenorships in 2003 (Volker Paul) and 2004 (Ingrid Williams), respectively.
They were followed by Birger Koopmann (University of Göttingen, Germany) and Samantha Cook (Rothamsted Research, United Kingdom), elected in 2003 and 2004, respectively. During this time, workshops were organized at Rothamsted, UK in 2004, Poznan, Poland in 2005, Paris, France in 2008, Göttingen, Germany in 2011 and Belveaux, Luxembourg in 2013. As a result of these meetings five IOBC/wprs Bulletins were compiled and published together with other colleagues being members of the editorial board.
In 2013 the new convenor Malgorzata Jedryczka (Institute for Plant Genetics - IGR, Poznan, Poland) was elected and Sam Cook kindly offered to stay in charge of the Entomology subgroup. Since then, three working group meetinges were organized in Tartu (Estonia) in 2016; Zagreb (Croatia) in 2018 and due to the Covid pandemia an online metting, which was organized by our French colleagues from Rennes. Bulletins of all the three meetings have been compiled and published together with assisting colleagues.
