Award details

Sustainable pest control - comparing tritrophic interactions in organic and conventional production systems

Reference	BBS/E/C/00004785
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor John Pickett
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Dr Michael Birkett
Institution	Rothamsted Research
Department	Rothamsted Research Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	24,671
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/03/2006
End date	28/02/2009
Duration	36 months

Abstract

This cross-disciplinary project will combine chemical, ecological and modelling techniques to determine whether cabbages grown under an organic regime differ in terms of pest dynamics and plant chemistry. There is increasing pressure to de-intensify agricultural practice and organic approaches are becoming more popular and widely adopted. However, there are very few, if any, detailed scientific investigations into the claims made about improved pest control. Insects destroy 14% of all food in spite of billions of pounds of insecticide being used every year. Growing cabbages organically is very hard due to significant pest damage, yet there is a strong desire for organic cabbages as conventional crops receive a lot of insecticide. We will use lab and field studies to see whether organic plants defend themselves better and are less attacked/damaged by pests. We will use a model system involving two major pests (a chewing caterpillar, the diamondback moth, and a sucking/piercing greenfly, the cabbage mealy aphid) and the natural enemies of these pests, in order to conduct scientific investigations which will allow us to determine whether organic cabbages are better defended, and if they are why? Finally, we will develop a mathematical model which will explain our observations in numbers. What is really useful with the model is that it will allow us to run many more experiments on a computer saving us lots of time and money. This will allow us to develop a picture of how to optimise the positives of our system whilst reducing the negatives. The approach we will adopt on our model system could be extended to other crops and will hopefully ensure that we can produce the quantity and quality of food we desire whilst leaving a smaller ecological footprint.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Agri-food (AF)
Research Topics	Crop Science, Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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