Masstock Arable (UK) Limited Public Funding

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Pests, diseases and extreme weather events are major constraints on the production of peas and beans in the UK. Current pest and disease control methods often rely on synthetic chemical pesticides which have negative impacts on the environment and human health. This project would **transform traditional farm protein production** by providing **sustainable/climate-resistant alternatives** for UK-grown legume farmers **by identifying new products** to stimulate plant growth and/or increase tolerance to abiotic stress (biostimulants) and help manage pests and diseases (biopesticides). These products will include natural products and living microorganisms which would reduce the dependency on synthetic inputs and increase resilience. This pre-farm gate project will have a huge impact on downstream industries such as food and feed manufacturers by intervening in an **early stage of the supply chain** to improve yield/health and quality of plant raw materials such as legumes (peas and Faba beans) that are playing a significant role in the shaping of a **healthier and more sustainable food system.** The project is delivered by a **highly competent consortium** led by CHAP and including CABI, University of Warwick, Agrii, Fargro and Russell Bio.

The UK Processors and Growers Research Organisation will lead this ambitious national research programme with 200 UK farms and 18 partners to design an environmentally transformative, economically sustainable arable rotation system to optimise crop rotations for climate benefit. UK farming accounts for 10% of the UK's total GHG emissions p/a (46.3 MT), 68% of total UK nitrous oxide emissions, 47% of total methane emissions and 1.7% of total CO2\. Arable cropping significantly contributes to these figures, utilising 596,496T of Nitrogen fertiliser p/a. Existing emission estimates are for individual crops, and the impact of these in successive rotational cropping remains unquantified. This project will investigate three opportunity gaps: (i) replacement of 20% of national grain crops with pulses and legumes rotations to establish a net zero farming pathway, (ii) the nutritional and financial feasibility of replacing feed grains (currently representing 70% of the UK grain market) with legumes in 30% national livestock feed and (iii) create a market for this additional yield. The proposed system outputs would contribute to UK Net Zero goals with a total potential reduction of 1.5MT CO2e p/a of the maximum potential 2.8MT for UK agriculture (Defra Agri Climate Report, 2021) in the following ways. * Removal of 233,000T of nitrogen fertiliser and 0.55MT (CO2e) - a 1.2% national reduction - by increasing pulse and legume cropping areas to the rotational optimum of 20% (1M Ha) across UK farms. * Use of subsequent produce in animal feed substitution (replacing 50% of imported soya meal) delivering a further 0.7MT CO2e reduction. * Delivery of a residual N benefit to following crops, leading to an additional 0.25MT CO2e (0.5%). * Delivering a national cost saving to farming of £1032M p/a, by removing 20% of N fertiliser across UK growers and 1.8MT soya imports respectively from the UK farming supply chain. * A policy tool that leads to the adoption of more measures and cost-effective solutions for reducing agricultural GHGs that fit with the farm business' (source: Defra Agri-Climate Report, October 2021). * A set of farmer and grower case studies that can be used to educate and inform the national farming community of the environmental and financial benefits of the research solution. We propose a technologically and financially accessible system for farmers/growers to achieve 100% uptake of a nationally resilient and sustainable food system. Secondary benefits will be the reduction of carbon footprint associated with the domestic replacement of 1.8MT of soya imports p/a.

The withdrawal of numerous pesticides under Directive 91/414/EEC and subsequent amendments is central to promoting low pesticide-input farming in EU Member States. Furthermore, EU-wide standards for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) are being developed that will become mandatory from 2014 relying on adoption of alternative methods to control pests and diseases. The UK potato industry is particularly vulnerable to a reduction of pesticide use with a likely loss of production across market sectors valued at > £520M. Thus new and novel methods of disease management need to be developed and integrated into IPM strategies. In this project, we wish to explore whether using cutting edge unmanned aerial vehicle optical platforms it is possible to identify a number of diseases in potato before visual symptoms occur in the field. If successful, this will allow accurate mapping of disease in the field thus allowing targeted application of pesticide or equivalent to manage disease at an early stage. Consequently, this will yield a more efficient production process with fewer inputs resulting in significant environmental benefits and a reduction in production wastage due to disease pressure.

Controlling disease relies on early and accurate diagnosis informing timely and targeted intervention strategies. Good resistance management is based on minimising the levels of exposure of the target pathogen to the fungicide, only spraying where the risk warrants treatment. Knowledge of the resistance status of a field population will allow specific targeting of products avoiding use of ineffective treatments, maximising efficacy and longevity of active compounds. This multi-disciplinary project brings together agronomy services providers (Agrii) diagnostic providers (Optisense/GeneSys) and underpinning science (Fera) stakeholders to deliver a rapid, hand-held, in-field test for real-time monitoring of fungicide resistance strains of Mycosphaerella graminicola (Septoria tritici) within crops. The results of testing will directly inform the user on interventions using the correct fungicide to control the specific genotype of the pathogen present in the crop. This method will save money on ineffective spraying, improve yield, decrease losses, prevent build up of resistance and prolong the life of active chemicals and promote their responsible use improving environmental stewardship.

Commercial production of wheat crops in the UK is currently highly dependent on timely applications of fungicides to optimise yield and the development of improved varieties by plant breeders with resilience to diseases and abiotic stresses. With recent advances in genetic marker technology, the bottleneck in predictive agronomy and wheat breeding is now in the ability to conduct field-based discovery and evaluation of traits (phenotyping) which are currently laborious, time consuming and inefficient. The project will develop canopy sensor phenomics platforms, based on chlorophyll fluorescence and hyperspectral imaging systems, which will allow a high throughput and detailed evaluation of crop performance (i.e., early detection of biotic and abiotic stress). The high-throughput canopy sensors (ground-based and aerial) will be tested as decision tools and provide a step change in the efficiency of wheat predictive agronomy and breeding and a basis for improving wheat for UK farmers.

The project will deliver a low-cost, wireless, in-soil sensor system for monitoring available moisture, pH and nutrients continuously and at multiple depths in ‘indicator’ sections of fields. Early adoption will be against labile N for Velcourt's arable wheat production. This will be extended to potatoes, OSR & livestock forage, including the technically-demanding sensing of semi-labile P & K. The commercial proposition will build-on the integrated agronomy services offered by Origin to calibrate the sensor results & determine the relationship between sensor output and available plant nutrients. Field & lab trials will relate this data to seasonal plant responses to understand the dynamics of nutrient release / mineralisation & plant uptake / immobilisation. Delivery of the validated sensor will allow 'smart' dynamic control of fertiliser application and optimise nutrient inputs Vs field biological yield potential.