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

油菜(Brassica napus subsp.)油菜(又称油菜)是英国第二大可耕种作物。油菜的用途从食用植物油到生物柴油和动物饲料。最近俄罗斯-乌克兰冲突导致国际供应链中断，导致油菜价格在2022年2月至4月期间几乎翻了一番，表明了这种作物的全球需求，并为英国种植者增加产量带来了好处。然而，在英国，害虫压力(如甘蓝茎跳甲，CSFB)每年导致15%-20%的产量损失。由于CSFB造成的作物建立困难以及随后种植者回报不佳，油菜籽作物面积一直在减少，从2019年的53万公顷减少到2021年的30.7万公顷。由于缺乏对棉铃虫的完全有效的作物保护控制，种植者依靠栽培综合病虫害管理(IPM)技术来控制该害虫，但收效甚微。在拟议的项目中，我们计划测试和验证一种新的基于种子的处理方法，以防止CSFB进一步取食和以极低的农用化学品投入对油菜组织造成损害，从而提供作物保护，以减轻英国一种重要作物-油菜的虫害。

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.