The project aims to develop a product that can be used in conjunction with insecticides to enhance their effectiveness. Through improving the activity of insecticides, the product will facilitate reduced application rates in the field and contribute to the aim of lowering the quantities of synthetic insecticides used in agriculture and horticulture. The product will be made from materials extracted from non-crop plant sources and synergism of insecticides will derive from the inhibition of the enzymes responsible for their detoxification. This synergism will not only enhance insecticide activity in the field, it will also uncouple metabolic resistance in populations of pests that have developed tolerance to a given insecticidal compound. The innovation will have various benefits, including abrogating resistance, enabling more efficient pest control and reducing the environmental impact that insecticide applications currently have.

The removal from the market of many of the conventional products capable of controlling Aphids has led to a number of sub-species developing resistance to the remaining methods of control. The funding for this project has enabled the confirmatory testing of a new environmentally neutral - soft pesticide that controls a broad spectrum of Aphid species and resistant types. The product is in the final stages of regulatory assessment and will be introduced to the market in the UK and Europe in 2015.