Farmers know there is a war with pests, diseases and weeds to produce our food. Do you? We are building the #croprotect website to help farmers and agronomists access info on IPM

1. The vulnerability of crops to attack
by pests, diseases and weeds and
the need for crop protection
Toby Bruce

2. Are we losing the war?

3. “High yielding varieties”

4. really?

8. Why is it needed?

10. Reducing
risks and
impacts of
pesticide
use on
human
health and
environment

11. Promoting
IPM and
use of
alternatives

12. Royal Society: “There is a pressing
need for the ‘sustainable
intensification’ of global agriculture in
which yields are increased without
adverse environmental impact and
without the cultivation of more land”.
A second green revolution which is knowledge intensive
rather than input intensive?
Royal Society (2009) Policy document 11/09

13. Are we losing the war?
Reducing
risks and
impacts of
pesticide
use on
human
health and
environment

14. Promoting
IPM and
use of
alternatives
Not if we fight back with innovations in IPM

16. For successful promotion, establishment and support for IPM, two
things are vital:
① Research and development of alternative approaches to
crop protection
② Knowledge exchange and transfer to growers and
agronomists

17. For successful promotion, establishment and support for IPM, two
things are vital:
① Research and development of alternative approaches to
crop protection
This will require: 10 X INVESTMENT
② Knowledge exchange and transfer to growers and
agronomists
COLLABORATION
HIGH QUALITY INNOVATIVE SCIENCE
REGULATORY APPROVALS

18. For successful promotion, establishment and support for IPM, two
things are vital:
① Research and development of alternative approaches to
crop protection
② Knowledge exchange and transfer to growers and
agronomists

19. “CROPROTECT”
Information sources
Grower input on their local
crop protection challenges
Which pests, weeds,
diseases are a problem?
Information delivery
- solutions relevant to the location &
its specific problems
Industry and academic
Identify best practices for
pest management
Information processing +
design of IPM systems
Geographic
information system
Include cropping history
Web portal
Novel combinations of tactics
New solutions as alternatives to
pesticides
①
②
③
④
⑤

20. “CROPROTECT”
Better access to info about
crop protection

21. “CROPROTECT”
N D J F MAMJ J A S ON D J F MAMJ J A S ON D J F MAMJ J A S O
Build a network of farmers and agronomists interested
in pioneering the system
Design a user interface through which farmers and
agronomists can enter details (module 1)
Conduct a test run of the system to determine the main
problems faced
Design and build the geographic information system
(module 2)
Build the knowledge bank of potential solutions (module
3)
Determine the best practices for managing specific
pests, weeds and diseases (module 4)
Automate the system so that best practise solutions can
be matched with site specific problems (module 5)
Test run and obtain feedback from pioneer farmers and
agronomists
Optimise and refine the system
Upscale and roll out to farmers and agronomists for the
whole UK with a promotional campaign
2014 2015 2016 2017

22. The address for the actual website will be
http://croprotect.rothamsted.ac.uk

23. WAKE UP, THE WAR IS REAL !
This will require: 10 X INVESTMENT
COOPERATION
HIGH QUALITY INNOVATIVE SCIENCE
REGULATORY APPROVALS

24. Healthy Harvests !