Crop protection against aphids with plant defence activators

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Our project is designed to facilitate the practical development of plant defence activators, such as cis-jasmone, as novel crop protection treatments for use against aphids. Earlier research has shown that cis-jasmone treatment can significantly reduce aphid infestations in the field and that treated plants become repellent to aphids while also becoming more attractive to natural enemies of pests. Plant defence activators have the advantage of having a non-toxic mode of action. They work by switching on (inducing) defence in plants and could provide new, environmentally friendly crop protection options. Farmers urgently need new options as conventional pesticide use is increasingly restricted by changes in legislation and compromised by evolution of resistance.Plant defence activators are:* environmentally friendly* work with not against natural enemies of pests* provide new interventions farmers can use against pests* form part of integrated pest management (IPM)* can be used against insecticide resistant pestsHere, we will make the next steps towards commercialisation of plant defence activator treatments. We have discussed with Agrii, a leading UK agronomy company, the research that would be needed. Wheat is their preferred crop for initial trials due to the large area it is grown in and also because our earlier field trials have already shown cis-jasmone can reduce aphid populations in wheat. Agrii have other potential plant defence activators (AGRII101, AGRII202) they would like to test alongside cis-jasmone in order to compare performance. Our project will therefore conduct field trials comparing different plant defence activator treatments with each other as well as with untreated control plots and plots treated with a standard pyrethroid insecticide. We will test the performance of plant activators with different wheat varieties because different varieties can have different capacity for inducing defence. Having tested efficacy under realistic conditions we will then explore with regulatory authorities how to obtain regulatory approval for for plant activators. The benefits listed above mean a strong case can be made for regulatory approval and we will include dialogue with regulators as a project objective.