Written by Charlotte Cunningham
A project to develop a biopesticide for cabbage stem flea beetle is looking to recruit farmers to help shape the eventual outcomes. Charlotte Cunningham reports. Funded by a grant from Innovate UK, Agri-Tech centre Crop Health and Protection (CHAP) is working in collaboration with CAB International (CABI) and Russell Bio Solutions, along with input from H&T Bioseed, to provide farmers with a much-needed alternative to the now banned neonic insecticides for cabbage stem flea beetle (CSFB), especially in the light of increasing resistance to pyrethroids. Oilseed rape has for many years been the third largest arable crop in the UK, after wheat and barley. However, in 2019 the amount of OSR grown in the UK fell to 1,752,000t, down 12.9% from the 2,012,000t grown in 2018. This was the lowest yield in five years, due in part to the increasing prevalence of CSFB. The estimated cost of CSFB to growers in 2019 was £79M. With limited management tools left to control CSFB there’s a market opportunity to develop a biopesticide, according to CHAP. The work to develop different formulations of a fungal biopesticide (identified in work already done by CHAP and CABI) to target CSFB in OSR at different stages…
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