Agriculture must also face the challenges of the information society, globalisation and the European Union. Agriculture takes on a new role in society: must be sustainable, ecological and create quality standards of living for society. The socio-economic changes taken place over the last decade in Central and Eastern Europe have fundamentally altered the employment opportunities, in-service training system and cross-training chances of agricultural workers. Sophisticated production technologies and delivery of quality products call for thorough specialist knowledge with a key role attributed to plant protection.

In 2002, the Leonardo Programme provided support for the elaboration of training materials for middle-level specialists of SMEs in the area of plant protection. Our aim is to create an adult specialist training material on plant protection by using sophisticated ICT opportunities with a primary pedagogically focused approach.
Without the possession of up-to-date and effective plant protection knowledge, the accession to the European Union will entail masses of problems. The Member States of the European Union put great emphasis on using sophisticated chemicals in production and even more so on maintaining a competitive edge through bio-production and bio-farming.

This training material is of modular structure, facts are discussed by nutrient plants. Plants have been selected according to the project's country-specific criteria. The following modules are being elaborated for the time being: barley, maize, potato, sunflower, wheat, cucumber, paprika, root vegetables, tomato, cabbage, melons, apple, stone fruits, grapes, citrus fruits and olives. The latter two plants carry particular importance for southern European project participants.
Our aim is to expand the specialist plant protection knowledge of agricultural workers and thus to improve the competitiveness of farms. A long-term aim of the project is to reduce the quantity of chemical emissions and to produce healthier materials.