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

油菜(Brassica napus subsp；显著;也被称为油菜)是英国第二重要的可耕地作物。油菜的用途广泛，从食用植物油到生物柴油和动物饲料。最近俄罗斯和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，这表明全球对该作物的需求以及英国种植者增加其产量的好处。然而，在英国，害虫的压力（如卷心菜茎跳蚤甲虫，CSFB）导致每年15-20%的产量损失。由于CSFB造成的作物种植困难以及随后的种植者回报不佳，油菜籽作物面积从2019年的53万公顷减少到2021年的30.7万公顷。由于缺乏完全有效的作物保护控制，农民依靠文化害虫综合管理（IPM）技术，如后期钻孔和伴作来控制害虫，但收效有限。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，以极低的农用化学品投入来防止CSFB的进一步摄食和对油菜组织的损害，为英国一种重要的作物-油菜提供作物保护，减轻害虫的损害。

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.