Novel seed-based treatment for tackling flea beetle damage to protect the UK's oilseed rape production

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Rapeseed (Brassica napus subsp. napus; also known as oilseed rape) is the second most important arable crop in the UK. Uses of oilseed rape range from edible vegetable oils to biodiesel and animal feed. The recent disruption of international supply chains caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict has resulted in the prices of oilseed rape nearly doubled between February and April 2022, demonstrating the global demand of the crop and benefits for the UK growers to increase its production. However, pest pressure in the UK (e.g. cabbage stem flea beetle, CSFB) has led to 15-20% yield losses annually. Due to difficulties with crop establishment caused by CSFB and subsequent poor grower returns, rapeseed crop area has been decreasing from 530,000 ha in 2019 to 307,000 ha in 2021. Because lack of fully effective crop protection control of CSFB, growers are relying on cultural Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques such as later drilling and companion cropping to control the pest but had limited success. In the proposed project, we plan to test and verify a novel seed-based treatment to prevent further CSFB feeding and damage to the rapeseed tissues with extremely low agrochemical inputs, providing crop protection to mitigate pest damage for an important UK crop - oilseed rape.