Summary An analysis of the regulations of herbicide use for weed control in non‐agricultural/urban amenity areas, including actual pesticide use, was carried out as a joint survey of seven European countries: Denmark, Finland, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Sweden and United Kingdom. Herbicides constitute the major part of the pesticides used in urban amenity areas. Herbicide use on hard surfaces is the largest in terms of volume and potential contamination of surface and groundwater. The aim of the study was to investigate the differences in political interest and public debate on the ‘use of pesticides in public urban amenity areas’, regulations within each country at national, regional and local levels, possible use of alternative weed control methods and the amounts of pesticides used on urban amenity areas. A comparative analysis revealed major differences in political interest, regulations and availability of statistics on pesticide use. Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany have, or have had, a strong public and political interest for reducing the use of herbicides to control weeds in urban amenity areas and also have very strict regulations. The UK is currently undergoing a period of increasing awareness and strengthening regulation, while Latvia and Finland do not have specific regulations for weed control in urban amenity areas or on hard surfaces. Statistics on pesticide/herbicide use on urban amenity areas were only available in Denmark and the Netherlands. Developing this kind of information base reveals the differences in herbicide use, regulations and policies in European countries and may enhance the transfer of knowledge on sustainable weed control across countries.

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Abstract. Within the ERA-net CORE Organic Plus transnational programmes supported project PRODIVA producing of the information required for a better utilization of crop diversification for weed management in North European organic arable cropping systems was started. To fulfill the goal of this project-not to eradicate weed problems, which is unlikely to happen in any arable farming system, but to maintain a diversified and manageable weed flora that can support beneficial organisms-there were data from ongoing long-termed cropping system experiments from Latvia analyzed.It is hypothesised that: a) perennial weeds can be suppressed in the post-harvest period by improved cover crop establishment and pertinent selection of cover crop species; b) on-farm practices of crop diversification are related to weed pressure and species composition.On the bases on data from organic farm and ongoing long-termed cropping system experiment on weed dynamics in six-field crop rotations with cover crop was concluded that red clover as cover crop after the harvest period is effective to manage perennial weeds. In crop rotation with higher proportions of cereals weed infection growth in sixfield rotation with 50% share of cereals up to 3.4, but with 33.3 % share-up to 2.1 times.

In the frame of EU 7th Research Framework Programme of The European Union project EUROLEGUME (Enhancing of legumes growing in Europe through sustainable cropping for protein supplay for food and feed) two Rhizobium leguminosarium strains alone and in mixture were examinated to evaluate the influence on yield formation of faba bean (Vicia faba L.) ‘Lielplatones’. The field experiment was carried out at the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Economics between 2014 -2016 in the organic cropping system field. The beans seeds were treated with rhizobia fungi by soaking in bacteria suspension for 30 minutes before sowing. A plant high was measured at the beginning of flowering (BBCH 61- 64), at the beginning of forming pods (BBCH 71- 75) and at the beginning of maturity (BBCH 81- 85). The inoculation of plant seeds promotes a slight increase in the plant length. The highest yield was from seeds inoculated with strain R2. There were no significant differences between tested strains. The results of this investigation indicate that rhizobium inoculation is a recommendable management tool for faba beans generally but effectiveness of rhizobial strains strongly depending climate conditions. Seed treatment with Rhizobium contributed to an increase in the quantity of nitrogen in the soil.