Holistic approach to controlling crop pest problems
In an attempt to prove that integrated pest management ( IPM) is more than just the latest buzz- words, a series of demonstration farms will focus on using t his method to prevent, detect and control pests, weeds and diseases in arable crops.
The Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board ( AHDB) will next year use its strategic cereal farms to focus on this holistic approach which uses varietal resistance, natural enemies, croprotations, cultivation and other means to keep on top of weeds, pest and diseases without immediate recourse to plant protection sprays.
The trials and demonstration s-which are taking place at AHDB’S farms in Fife, Suffolk andwarwickshire- will also investigate means of improving the farmed environment through the use of cover cropping, cultivation techniques and better use of marginal land – with the results from the trials and demonstrations available this time next year.
The wider initiative will also look at how to reduce pesticide use by testing fungicide application timings, along with monitoring the role played by beneficial invertebrates and natural enemies in flower- rich grass margins surrounding some of the crops.
The use of areas of less productive marginal land to enhance the environmental credentials of the farms will also beinvestigated- aswillhowcover cropping can reduce leaching of nutrients and enhance soil organic matter which helps sequester carbon in the soil.
David Aglen, who took up the reins as the host of scotland first Strategic Cereal Farm in Fife earlier this year, said his priority wasalso to understand the relationship between plant health and disease through tissue tests.
“Using tissue tests, we want to understand seasonal plant health changes and crops’ vulnerability to disease,” said Aglen.
During the first year, soil baselining using AHDB’S soil health scorecard will also be utilised across the land farmed at Balbirnie estate to understand the biological, chemical and physical status of the soil.
The importance of an integrated approach to the industry could be forced into sharper relief as the future regulation of plant protection products ( PPP) enters uncharted waters.
Earlier this week NFU Scotland’s policy manager Jenny Brunton warned that the chemicals industry was currently facing a ‘ double whammy’ - with the threat of a no- deal or hard Brexit and potentially diverging rules between the UK and the EU.
She said that even if trade deal was agreed, the UK would no longer participate in the EU’S registration scheme, with the issue being handled by the UK’S Health and Safety Executive.
She said that this meant that applications for authorisation and approval of new products would have to be submitted separately under both the EU and UK regimes, a situation which could slow down their availability to UK farmers.
“Pesticide regulation is complicated and contentious, and any changes - even the simplest - take time”.
She added that while many growers hoped leaving the EU would eventually allow the UK to shift its policy away from the EU’S hazard-based approach towards one based on risk, such changes would not come overnight.