Impact case study database

Warwick IPM research supports sustainable high-quality vegetable production across the horticultural sector in the UK and Professor Collier and Dr Chandler work closely with the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), which is funded by the agriculture and horticulture industries. Warwick’s “world-leading” expertise and facilities are key “ to generat[ing] new knowledge on agronomic, biological, chemical and genetic control agents for diseases, pests and weeds, together with pest and disease forecasts and decision support tools. The technical knowledge and innovations have enabled growers to improve their pest and crop management systems”, according to the AHDB’s Research Director [5.1].

Access to new chemical and biopesticide plant protection products

Due to the prohibitive costs of bringing a new plant production compound to market – approximately GBP270,000,000 for a synthetic chemical pesticide – it is challenging for companies to justify these additional costs for what are effectively minor crops, yet new active ingredients are essential when older products are withdrawn. Collier and Chandler cooperated with multiple agrochemical and biopesticide companies to facilitate the delivery of new crop protection products for horticulture. Syngenta are one of many companies accessing Warwick’s expertise: “ Warwick’s innovative crop protection research is also important to us because they have great expertise in the minor crop sector. They have helped us to develop our product offer for the vegetable industry, extending our current product offer into new crop areas and introducing new products to the market with development trials” [5.2]. Collier’s work with DuPont (now FMC) informed the formulation and application method for Cyazypyr®, which gives selective control of cabbage root fly and diamondback moth while not exposing beneficial arthropods such as hoverflies and spiders. “ Without Warwick’s trials work, I believe that some key uses of insecticides would not have been developed and, without the knowledge transfer, products would not have been used as effectively” [5.3].

Collier is one of the lead scientists on AHDB’s SCEPTRE and SCEPTREPlus [G2] programmes, which drive sustainable plant protection in horticulture. She provided key evidence to support the AHDB’s Horticulture Extension of Authorisation for Minor Use (EAMU) programme, which obtains approvals for new crop protection products on horticultural crops. Warwick’s efficacy data on three products supported emergency-use applications between 2016 and 2020:

a) Teppeki®: Warwick’s aphid forecast was used to support AHDB’s emergency 120-day authorisation applications to the Chemicals Regulation Division (CRD) for Teppeki®, a selective aphicide, in 2018, 2019 and 2020. “ This has been important to the carrot-growing sector, with a value of around £120M [GBP120,000,000] because of limited aphid control options … Teppeki’s different mode of action improves pesticide resistance management options” [5.1].

b) Benevia 10OD®: Diamondback moth can lead to significant vegetable brassica crop damage, with losses of up to 40% for Brussels sprout crops, 15% for swedes, and 10% for cabbages. Control can be difficult due to resistance to pyrethroid insecticides (which are also toxic to beneficial insects). In 2016 damage was estimated at around GBP9,000,000 in the UK. Warwick’s pest pressure data supported AHDB’s successful 120-day emergency authorisation applications for Benevia 10OD® in 2016, 2019 and 2020 [5.1].

c) FLiPPER®: This biological insecticide provides growers with a “critical new product” [5.1] following withdrawal of pymetrozine and pyrethrins in 2020; it provides fast-acting control of whitefly, aphid and two-spotted spider mite on a range of field and leafy vegetable and fruit crops including strawberry, tomato and cucumber.

Advice on improved biopesticide performance

Warwick’s research is the leading resource in the UK for biopesticide best practice. Following Warwick’s inputs to help revise the 2007 UK Pesticides Safety Directorate Biopesticides Regulation Scheme and the 2009 EU Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive, approved biopesticide products have increased tenfold in the EU, from 10 in 2008 to 105 in 2017. Working closely with AHDB and growers, Warwick has developed and shared biopesticide best practice, raising awareness of how these products work to improve control using biopesticides. Chandler has led a regular series of talks, around 10 each year since 2016, attracting over 300 delegates from the horticultural industry; he has also held demonstrations and written outreach articles for growers, providing information on sprayer husbandry, equipment calibration and best field practice. Feedback indicates a favourable cultural shift and improved control [5.1].

Fargro, the lead authority on biopesticides and IPM-compatible products for the horticultural sector, consider Warwick “[our] first port of call for assistance with innovative work on biopesticides and crop protection solutions” and states that “Fargro has relied on Warwick’s excellent services, staff and research capabilities” [5.4]. Warwick’s biopesticide benchmarking has informed Fargro’s technical support and support literature for its 4,000 customers. Warwick’s research on the microbial biofungicide AQ10®, an obligate parasite of powdery mildew fungi, led Fargro and 30MHz to develop a decision support system for growers embedded within their crop monitoring platform. This forecasts the likely occurrence of powdery mildew on crops such as aubergine, courgette, cucumber, tomato and strawberry, and recommends a window for early, effective application of AQ10 [5.4].

Independent pest monitoring and forecasting services

Since August 2013, Collier has provided over 386 forecasts of many field vegetable pests in the weekly AHDB Pest Bulletin service, a collaboration between Warwick, AHDB and Syngenta. Considered a key service for the horticulture sector, the bulletin helps its readership of around 3,000 growers to treat crops “ in a reactive manner instead of prophylactically” [5.2]. In addition, Collier and Agrii, the UK’s leading provider of agronomy services, combine Warwick’s carrot fly forecasting model with UK-wide weather data to provide live, accurate and timely advice via mobile devices. This “is likely to have improved the economic performance of carrot crops” as well as “improved our relationships with our customers” [5.5]. Agrii has also used the black bean aphid migration forecast since 2014 to warn of high-risk periods and the forecasts have “ reduced the economic and reputational risks to growers” [5.5]. AHDB’s survey (2018-19) on the use of their monitoring and forecasting services found that 88% of users rated the pest bulletin service as ‘quite or very useful’, with the service enabling the targeting of in-field monitoring, targeting of sprays and determining spray frequency [3.7].

Adoption and reach of IPM strategies to control pests

There are no insecticide seed treatments approved for use on radish against cabbage root fly larvae, which feed on radish bulbs. The 2016 and 2019 AHDB guidance for pest insects infesting Brassica crops, written by Collier, recommended IPM strategies including monitoring and net covers [5.6]. G's, the UK's largest producer of radish for multiple retailers (market value of around GBP11,000,000) has adopted the use of net covers for commercial radish production based on Warwick’s research on crop protection, changing land management practices to break the pest’s life cycle. This has doubled their yield on a third less land, reduced waste, lowered staff costs associated with sorting rejected produce, and improved G’s relationships with its retailer customers. They state that “Warwick has been our ‘go to’ place for specialist knowledge and expertise” and that the Warwick research “was key to us adopting this control method in 2014 and developing and investing in the new growing system over the next 3 years [5.7, 3.6]. The Red Tractor Assurance Scheme’s ‘Radish Crop Module’ (2016) also recommends fine mesh netting for control without the use of insecticide [5.8].

Many AHDB best practice guidance factsheets recommend IPM strategies. Examples include cultural approaches for the management of capsid bugs on celery crops, particularly devastating in organic celery crops with potential annual losses of GBP2,000,000: “ …crop covers made of fine mesh netting to exclude all stages of Orthops spp. This approach successfully excludes the bugs, although it may have other consequences for crop management” [5.9]. Also Collier’s evaluation of novel insecticide and bioinsecticide sprays to control asparagus beetle adults and larvae have “ identified more sustainable control methods such as improved monitoring of the pest and improved crop residue management at the end of the season, which have been recommended as best practice” [5.1, 5.10].

Warwick’s research and outreach on IPM in vegetable crops has given the UK’s commercial horticulture sector more sustainable, environmentally-friendly and economically viable crop protection practices. Warwick’s innovations and dissemination of best practice have helped increase production, reduce waste and helped international agronomy companies avoid revenue losses of millions of GBP.