Modelling the path to better soil-applied pesticides

许多农药是土壤施用的，包括残留除草剂、土壤杀虫剂和含有杀菌剂和/或杀虫剂的种子处理。它们在水污染方面承受着巨大的监管压力，因此继续从市场上消失。模拟模型是根据欧盟地下水和地表水保护标准调节农药的主要依据。由于这些模型是一维的，它们不能明确地表示植物或它们的根，或配方和配方放置策略的影响。存在的其他模型表示系统的单个组件是一种更令人满意的方式。该项目将创建一个概念框架，用于表示整个土壤-植物系统中当地农药浓度，并将使用它来生成一个空间胜任的模拟模型，该模型集成了现有知识。先进的配方和放置策略提供了减少脱靶运动的前景。新模型将首次使它们的环境效益能够以成本效益的方式量化。这提供了能够在这些技术的监管审批过程中获得信用的前景，抵消了不断变化的监管带来的负面经济影响。结合现有的经验方法，新模型还将提供土壤-植物系统中农药功效的定量理解，使新的有效成分和配方的合理设计成为可能。简而言之，该项目将使土壤农药产品的功效和环保性得到优化，帮助产品发明和支持监管审批。这个项目很好地符合竞争范围。研究结果将在产品设计阶段优化功效和水保护，从而产生更有效的产品，提高作物生产力并减少对环境的影响。该项目还创造了一种方法来展示先进配方技术和产品植入策略的环境效益，并提供了在欧盟农药监管审查过程中获得信任的前景，在该过程中，农药命运模型非常重要。能显著减少水污染的配方和安置战略也自然适合于减轻管制战略以及实地和流域一级的风险管理计划。

Many pesticides are soil applied, including residual herbicides, soil insecticides and seed treatments incorporating fungicides and/or insecticides. They are under intense regulatory pressure with regard to water contamination, and continue to be lost from the market as a result. Simulation models are the primary basis for regulating pesticides against EU ground- and surface-water protection standards. Since these models are one-dimensional, they cannot explicitly represent plants or their roots, or the effects of formulations and formulation placement strategies. Other models exist that represent individual components of the system is a more satisfactory way. This project will create a conceptual framework for representing local pesticide concentrations in the whole soil-plant system, and will use it to produce a spatially-competent simulation model, that integrates existing knowledge. Advanced formulations and placement strategies offer the prospect of reduced off-target movement. The new model will for the first time enable their environmental benefit to be quantified in a cost-effective way. This offers the prospect of being able to gain credit in the regulatory approval process for these technologies, offsetting the negative economic effects of evolving regulation. In combination with existing empirical approaches, the new model will also deliver quantitative understanding of pesticide efficacy in the soil-plant system, enabling the rational design of new active ingredients and formulations. In short, the project will enable efficacy and environmental protection to be optimised for soil-applied pesticidal products, aiding product invention and supporting regulatory approval.This project is well aligned to the competition scope. The results will enable the optimisation of efficacy and water protection at the product design stage, leading to more efficacious products that enhance crop productivity and reduce environmental impact. The project also creates a way to demonstrate the environmental benefit of advanced formulation technology and product placement strategies, and offers the prospect of gaining credit for these in the EU regulatory review process for pesticides, in which great weight is placed on pesticide fate models. Formulations and placement strategies that significantly reduce water contamination would also fit naturally into regulatory mitigation strategies, and risk management schemes at the field and watershed level.