HDC launches free national pest forecasting and monitoring service for field vegetable sector
Embargoed until 6 May 2004
The Horticultural Development Council (HDC) has launched a national pest forecasting and monitoring service for the field vegetable sector. Information on the pests of field vegetable crops, particularly brassicas, lettuce and carrot/parsnip is posted on the Warwick HRI website each week by Rosemary Collier.
The service builds on years of HDC and Defra funded research that enables scientists to accurately predict the activity of key pests. By inputting weather data and running the models it is possible to provide alerts that warn growers what could be happening in their crops.
In addition to the forecasts, the website also reports on the current activity of pest species, monitored at a number of locations in the UK. The information on aphid activity is particularly detailed and is provided by the Rothamsted Insect Survey, led by Dr Richard Harrington, which runs suction traps at 16 different locations within the UK.
“Whilst this does not fully replace the benefits that a grower would get from collecting weather data and running the models themselves, it does provide industry with an invaluable aid to their crop monitoring”, commented Dr Rosemary Collier, Warwick HRI scientist. She continued, “The days of prophylactic crop protection measures are steadily being put behind us as forecasting methods and other technologies enable us to target our inputs more appropriately.
Growers can view a general field vegetable pest summary and crop specific ‘highlights’ by clicking on the hyperlink in the HDC Weekly email or by visiting:
http://www2.hri.ac.uk/view_article.php?cat=rast&subcat=&page=10629&showoth
ENDS