AHDB fungicide performance data secured for the next three years

We have awarded a £821,755 contract to researchers to deliver independent fungicide efficacy data for key diseases of wheat, barley and oilseed rape.

It follows a competitive tendering process earlier this year, which saw the established ADAS-led consortium awarded the contract to deliver the fungicide performance project over the next three years.

The project delivers information on the relative performance of key fungicides for major foliar and ear/pod diseases of cereal and oilseed crops.

The results can be used to build commercial fungicide programmes, based on mixtures of active ingredients and products appropriate to the local disease-threat profile.

Georgia Hassell, who manages the fungicide performance project at AHDB, said:

“The fungicide performance project has seen several iterations, with the first dose-response curves published in 1996.

"In 2015, we united the trial series for wheat, barley and oilseed rape within a single programme that continues today.”

The project, which is one of AHDB’s largest after the Recommended Lists for cereals and oilseeds (RL), was recommended to the AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds sector council for funding by the farmer-led AHDB Research & Knowledge Exchange Committee.

In its application for the work, the project consortium, which also includes Harper Adams University, Niab and Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), demonstrated unrivalled resilience in the management of the extensive network of efficacy trials required to generate robust fungicide performance data.

The fungicide performance trials are in areas expected to produce high disease pressure for the target disease, with sites located in England and Scotland.

• Wheat: septoria tritici (6 sites), brown rust (1 site), fusarium head blight (1 site) and yellow rust (1 site)
• Barley: net blotch (2 sites), ramularia (1 site), rhynchosporium (2 sites)
• Oilseed rape: light leaf spot (2 sites) and phoma stem canker (2 sites)

The consortium works closely with Teagasc (Agriculture and Food Development Authority) in the Republic of Ireland to share dose-response data.

Because its members have forged strong links with fungicide manufacturers over many years, the consortium is uniquely placed to identify, procure and independently test fungicides prior to registration and release efficacy data as soon as authorisation for use is secured.

The project also provides a long-term resource to monitor trends in the performance of products and active ingredients – such as the rapid decline of strobilurin fungicides in the early 2000s, the relatively slow decline in azole activity over several years and the relatively recent changes in SDHI activity.

The main annual data release is at the AHDB Agronomy Conference, which takes place each December.

Although results are simple to interpret for levy payers, agronomists play an important role in translating efficacy data into practical field recommendations to maximise crop margins and minimise fungicide resistance risks.