Public Funding for Razbio Limited

Razbio Ltd. delivers natural, safe solutions for crop production, disease prevention, and integrated pest management, reducing reliance on toxic pesticides. Supported by funding from Innovate UK's Analysis for Innovators (A4I) initiative and in collaboration with ASTUTE, a leader in advanced testing technologies, Razbio aims to revolutionise pest monitoring. Our project focuses on developing and optimising new lure blends for Western Flower Thrips (WFT), crucial pests in global agriculture, to prevent habituation and maintain high efficacy throughout the entire cropping cycle. By leveraging extensive research into WFT's odorant binding proteins and receptors, combined with ASTUTE's high-throughput testing capabilities, we accelerate the discovery of effective attractant compounds. This collaboration ensures that our solutions are not only environmentally friendly but also cost-effective, reducing reliance on traditional pesticides while enhancing crop protection. Through this partnership, Razbio strives to achieve significant outcomes, including reduced pesticide use, improved crop yields, and the creation of innovative intellectual property. Our efforts contribute to global food security by providing sustainable pest management solutions tailored to meet the diverse needs of growers worldwide

Insect pests cause serious damage to food crops thus threatening food security. Monitoring insect pests is vital to limit the damage they cause, however, it requires specialist knowledge to identify pests and intensive farm visits, which farmers can't afford to do. Recent developments in the use of computing technology and image analysis offer opportunities to develop traps for automated insect pest identification and quantification. The automated traps doesn't require manual expertise as insect data is stored on a computing system which helps to identify a specific insect. The technology uses cloud based internet technology thus does not require frequent field visits. We have recently developed a semi-automated tool which is capable of identifying thrips, which is a major insect of many crops. Our technology holds potential for developing similar tools for other insect pests. To make a better use of our technology, we need to test and optimize our traps in an agricultural country where product evaluation can be done under field conditions. We have selected Pakistan as it is not only a top ten agricultural country, but also represents an emerging market for our products and services. Cotton whitefly and mango fruitfly are two major insect pests in Pakistan upon which our technology can be implemented. This project aims at determining the feasibility of optimizing and further development of our technology to meet the demand from Pakistan's agricultural sector. The key objectives are to develop and strengthen the academic collaboration to support our research and development activities, identify growers for field trials and gain a better understanding of commercial and regulatory landscape in Pakistan. The success of the project will open new opportunities for new technology and business expansion in an emerging market.

This study focuses on improving the monitoring and control of **_Aedes_** mosquitoes (_Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus_) which vector dengue. Over half the world's population is at risk of being infected with dengue with low income groups being particularly affected. In Pakistan, dengue outbreaks are regular and quite extensive, causing considerable hardships. For effective dengue management, participation and "buy in" from local communities is crucial. As no effective vaccine against dengue is available, careful monitoring and control of the _Aedes_ mosquitoes is essential. Early detection, especially at low population densities, allows timely action to be taken to suppress pest numbers before they explode following heavy rains. This project will develop inexpensive traps using disposable soft drink bottles, new lures and a fungus which is effective in killing mosquito adults and larvae. These products can be used alone and in a "**Lure & Kill**" (L&K) strategy where gravid _Aedes_ are lured to a trap containing spores of the fungal pathogen. Workshops will provide the opportunity for all stakeholders to evaluate the products and L&K strategy. From this study, we will be able to develop more effective dengue vector management strategies going forward that are fit for purpose.

Western Flower thrips (WFT) are an important agricultural pest of several crops including protected vegetables and soft fruit crops (1). WFT cause direct damage by feeding on the plant as well as through transmission of different diseases. WFT affected crops not only reduce the crop yield but also affect the crop quality e.g. deformed strawberries thereby reducing the market value of the crops. WFT have developed resistance to the most chemical insecticides and currently WFT control strategies are dependent on effective WFT monitoring and the use of its natural enemies e.g. predatory mites. Success of these natural enemies relies on their application at a time to coincide with the presence of susceptible life stages of WFT. Application of natural enemies in advance of the emergence of WFT leads to death of these enemies whilst a late application might not be enough to suppress the WFT population. Currently, farmers use manual monitoring of WFT to determine the pest population which is not only laborious but also result in false alarms or inaccurate data collection. Application of machine learning and artificial intelligence offers an opportunity to develop a semi-automated WFT monitoring system This project brings together artificial intelligence -based monitoring model to monitor WFT population. The monitoring tools will use pheromones to attract WFT to traps fitted with cameras and sensors. Different trap design and imaging techniques will be used to optimise the WFT capture and image quality for automated WFT monitoring. Data from these traps will help in identification and quantification of WFT hotspots enabling farmers to apply control measures timely and precisely. The project is timely as Covid-19 related restrictions and Brexit have limited the availability of skilled labour for manual WFT monitoring. Our innovation will fill this gap and help UK growers to produce quality strawberries. The project will help contribute significantly to reduce crop losses thus improving food production per unit area. The life cycle analysis will be used to demonstrate the effect of proposed technology in reducing carbon footprint of strawberry production. This study offers added value as technologies optimized here would offer potential to develop similar crop protection against a range of pest and diseases. 1.van Lenteren J.C. & Loomans A.J.M. (1998) pests & diseases, vol 2, International conference, UK, pp 401--408