Re-bugging the system:
Promoting Adoption of Alternative Pest Management Strategies in Field Crop Systems
Welcome to the website of the IPM based RELU Project (Wye)
Concern over health and environmental side effects of chemical pesticides has created demand for alternative pest control technologies. However, crop protection still largely relies on pesticide inputs. This is particularly so in arable field crops.
In this context, the objective of this project is to analyse the factors that may hinder or encourage the adoption of biological control in arable farming. Specifically, the project aims to
- quantify the socio-economic constraints limiting adoption (e.g. path dependency);
- assess the potential for implementation of such technologies in a large scale in UK;
- apply an interdisciplinary modelling framework to consider the dynamics of these forces across a wide range of temporal and spatial scales and encompass feed-back between natural and social-economic systems.
We will define a framework for targeting the research and development activity to improve the broad scale uptake of competitive, environmentally-friendly pest control strategies. This will contribute to reducing and replacing pesticide usage in the food chain.
Principal Investigator: Dr Alastair Bailey, Imperial College London, Wye Campus, Wye, Kent TN25 5AH.
Enquiries/ Webmasters: Dr Abhijit Sharma and Dr Marco Bertaglia
