Dawn Teverson

Dawn joined AHDB in September 2014 having started her career at the National Vegetable Research Station, Wellesbourne (now Warwick Crop Centre) in 1984 as a plant pathologist specialising in bacterial diseases of beans in East Africa. Her background is entirely vegetable research and knowledge exchange based, but her career has included a brief foray into livestock genetics and conservation at the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

She also spent time working with subsistence farmers in the southern highlands of Tanzania, interviewing and working with them to find out how they manage their crop genetic resources to deal with the challenges of diseases in one season and drought in the next. The problems faced by growers are similar the world over, especially given the changing climate and the way that will affect growing conditions in the UK in future. On returning to the UK, Dawn found that working for AHDB was the best way to get the research messages to the growers who need this information to push back the boundaries of what’s possible in vegetable growing.

Dawn’s interest has always been to help farmers and growers to increase their productivity by greater understanding of natural resources. She finds project managing knowledge exchange projects and delivering the outputs to growers the most rewarding aspects of her role.

If you would like to find out more about Dawn’s work, the following resources may be of interest:

• The Pest Bulletin - Dawn is particularly interested in IPM and insect pest monitoring such as diamondback moth and swede midge


• Crop Walkers Guides (brassica, carrot and parsnip, Alliums, peas and beans) and corresponding posters


• Several factsheets and guides: Brassica diseases best practice guide, brassica pests, and factsheets on carrot pests, carrot viruses and nematodes, onion neck rot, sclerotinia in vining peas and green beans, chocolate spot in broad beans and vegetable seed quality storage and handling


• AHDB Horticulture Strategic Centres variety trials and grower-led field trials: brassica (Lincolnshire, Cornwall and Scotland), carrot, onion, and vining pea (and corresponding results e.g. brassicas in Scotland 2020)


• Identification and origin of races of Pseudomonas syringaephaseolicola from Africa and other bean growing areas


• IPM in Field Vegetables webinar


• LEAF Virtual Field Day – IPM in Vegetable Farming webinar


• Brassica bacterial diseases project podcast


• Case study: The power of peer-to-peer learning


• Sources of resistance to Pseudomonas syringaephaseolicola races in Phaseolus vulgaris


• Genetics of pathogenicity and resistance in the halo-blight disease of beans in Africa [CITATION]


• Functional diversity for disease resistance in Phaseolus vulgaris bean mixtures in Tanzania.


• Random amplified polymorphic DNA variation within and among bean landrace mixtures (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) from Tanzania


• Participatory promotion of disease resistant and farmer acceptable Phaseolus beans in the southern highlands of Tanzania


• Characterization of the genetic diversity, structure and admixture of British chicken breeds


• Supporting British rare breeds - Countrylife


• Heavy Horse breeds under threat – BBC News


• Rare ‘curly coat’ pig is flavour of the past – Farmers Weekly