News

A healthy looking vegetable from the supermarkets, largely free from blemishes and creepy crawlies is very likely to have been treated multiple times with different pesticides. Pesticides in crop production however usually affect a wider range of species than those we want to control, they are an extra cost to farmers, and they confer a high selection pressure on the pests which in time inevitably evolve resistance to the chemical and thus diminish its efficacy. One way to reduce the environmental impact of pest control is to breed plants that are innately resistant to the pests. More information

Picture: lettuce infected by the fungus-like oomycete pathogen downy mildew (Bremia lactucae)

All Crop Centre articles as part of International Year of Plant Health 2020

The waste from larvae production could be used as a crop fertiliser should commercial insect farms get off the ground in the UK. This is the concept that Rob Lillywhite and researchers at Durham University are investigating as part of a major government-funded project to look at the viability of rearing insects for animal feed in the UK.
Press Release (26 October 2020)

Andy Gladman, a PhD student with Dr Dave Chandler, is a finalist in the BBC Gardeners World Magazine Gardens of the Year competition. His ornamental allotment in Leamington is one of eight gardens in the People’s Choice Award 2020.

Find out more, watch the video and take the opportunity to cast your vote at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/2RZXD78

Voting closes at noon on Tuesday 27 October 2020.

Aphids are economically important pests of a wide range of crops and control relies mainly on applications of synthetic chemical pesticides. However, pressures on growers to reduce the use of pesticides, together with increasing failures of aphid control due to the evolution of pesticide resistance, have raised serious questions about the long-term viability of this approach. Alternative methods of managing aphids are needed urgently.

Andy Gladman, a PhD student at at the Crop Centre, is investigating the development of a novel management strategy for pest aphids of Brassica crops (left picture: cabbage aphid) which aims to combine partial host plant resistance with biological control. More information

All Crop Centre articles as part of International Year of Plant Health 2020