Log in
Based on innovative technology invented and developed through research at the University of Southampton, sustainable pest control products by spinout company Exosect are being employed around the world to preserve the global food supply. Since 2008 its bio-control products have been newly adopted in diverse situations: by Sainsbury's in response to consumer pressure to reduce chemicals in food; by Bayer CropScience, who bought rights, in a multimillion pound deal, to a product for the protection of bee populations; by English Heritage to preserve the UK's cultural heritage. The technology has inspired a US$1m Gates Foundation grant for poverty reduction efforts in sub-Saharan Africa and raised awareness among conventional pesticide manufacturers of the environmental and economic benefits of bio-control solutions.
Rats are responsible for massive damage through crop destruction, stored food consumption and disease transmission. Steven Belmain's research on ecology and management of rodents has increased understanding in a neglected field. He has helped mitigate a regional famine and save lives during a rodent population outbreak in South Asia, and changed national policy and practice in South Africa. He has demonstrated how an African city can reduce zoonoses, and how damage to crops can be dramatically reduced. He has shown how communities can transform health and livelihoods if they work together and that rat-damage can be managed sustainably without using poisons.
Impact: Economic: The first fungicide-based control schemes minimising UK barley yield losses (saving approx. 516K tonnes / £95.1M per annum). A risk assessment method, which minimised pesticide usage.
Significance: Barley is the second most popular cereal crop grown in the UK — in 2012, 5.52 million tonnes of barley were grown (market value £1.02 billion). The research led to savings to the UK farming industry of ~£5.4 million per annum
Beneficiaries: Farmers, malting and brewing industries, UK tax revenue.
Attribution: Drs. Oxley, Havis, Hughes, Fountaine, and Burnett (SRUC) identified the pathogen and produced a field test for early identification of infestation.
Reach: Barley growing, malting and brewing sectors, seed and agrochemical industries UK-wide and in Ireland.
Research over the last 20 years by Jane Nicklin (née Faull) and her research group has established expertise in fungi, which has led to impacts in three areas: impacts on the licensing of commercial products for the control of insect pests which affect food crops, which have led to a new product being licensed in the US to the benefit of vine growers; impacts on heritage conservation, where the work has benefitted English Heritage, the National Trust and many other conservation groups; and impacts on public awareness and media engagement with science, in particular through her work with Channel 4's How Clean is your House? in 2009.
Research using novel techniques of genetic marker-aided selection enabled the development of new high yield, disease- and drought-resistant pearl millet hybrids, of which HHB67-Improved was released throughout India. HHB67-Improved is the first product of marker-assisted breeding to reach cereal producers in India and has spread rapidly since its release, preventing yield losses to downy mildew of up to 30% (valued at £7.8M) per year, and providing £2.6M additional annual grain yield. By 2011, it was grown on over 700,000 ha and currently three million people have improved food security as a direct result of this international development focused work.
Locust and grasshopper outbreaks can form swarms containing billions of insects, creating feared and damaging agricultural pests. Following research at Imperial College London, the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium acridum was developed into an oil formulated product (`Green Muscle®') that could be applied by ground-based and aerial spray equipment at ultra-low volume (ULV) rates, when locust and grasshopper populations periodically increased. Green Muscle® has since been used to treat locust outbreaks in Israel and five southern African countries. Green Guard®, an associated mycoinsecticide marketed in Australia, has been used extensively to control locusts in regions where there are land use limitations on chemical pesticides. Both Green Musclef6da and Green Guardf6da are supplied by Becker Underwood. Besides the success of Metarhizium as an effective, environmentally-friendly locust control option, substantial science and enabling technology ensued, that should accelerate the development of other mycopesticides as important alternatives to currently beleaguered chemical pest control methods.
This Unit's staff and associates have considerable expertise in land management, focussing on two issues faced in Africa; the management of communal rangelands and the management of native species for the benefit of local communities. Coventry University is a recognized centre of global knowledge on Prosopis, a series of economically and ecologically important tree species, but also widely-considered potentially serious weeds in many countries. Underpinning research carried out at Coventry was pivotal to the correct identification, evaluation and subsequent management and utilisation of the most common tropical species, Prosopis juliflora and Prosopis pallida. Other research, on the management of common rangelands, has provided an understanding of the way common land rights are expressed in communal areas and the social, political and ecological factors which govern them.
The Unit's research has led to economic impacts, including for The Mesquite Company (Texas) who generate USD 150,000 each year from the sale of Prosopis products. The research has also had impact on public policy and society in Kenya and South Africa. In Kenya, the Government changed its approach towards Prosopis from eradication towards management and lifted a blanket-ban on the use of plant-based charcoal as a result of the Unit's research. This enabled the Green Power Station (currently employing 2000 people) to be established. In South Africa, policy debate has been informed by research on the governance of common land. The research has also had impact on creativity, culture and society, informing public and political debate in South Africa, Kenya and India. Beneficiaries include businesses developing new products and producing energy; local communities in South Africa and Kenya, and the South African and Kenyan Governments.
This research represents an interdisciplinary collaboration between the School of Life Sciences and the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. The research focused on the commercialisation of biological pesticides or "biopesticides" - pest control agents from natural sources that are considered safer for humans and the environment than most conventional chemical pesticides and could potentially substitute for synthetic chemical pesticides. Biopesticide products can only be sold if they have been authorised by government regulators under UK and EU legislation. Prior to this research, only six biopesticide products had been commercialised in the UK. The research identified shortcomings in the UK biopesticide regulatory process and its associated policy network that acted as unnecessary barriers to the authorisation of biopesticides. A set of recommendations for an improved regulatory system was developed. The UK Pesticides Safety Directorate used the research to help implement a new scheme to facilitate the registration of biopesticides in the UK and therefore get more products to the market. The research was also used in 2008 to provide policy advice to the European Parliament on making greater use of biopesticides and other alternatives to synthetic chemical pesticides and improving the way they are regulated. In a 2007 report by the Science Advisory Council of the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the work was highlighted as helping to facilitate the emergence of a new biopesticides sector in the UK. Since the research was started, there has been a 430% increase in the number of biopesticide products approved in the UK.
Plant resistance provides sustainable control of the $125bn annual world crop losses to nematodes to replace environmentally hazardous pesticides. Urwin and Atkinson have developed three biosafe resistance technologies that 1) suppress feeding success, 2) reduce root invasion and 3) suppress nematode development by RNA interference. We have developed GM agriculture with leading industry (Sinochem, Monsanto) and in emerging economies through free access to technology, capacity building initiatives, review of collaborative R&D plans (India) and regulatory approval of field trials (Uganda). The work has also influenced policy-makers in the UK and in Switzerland, leading to new security measures for GM field trials in these countries..
Carotenoids (e.g. β-carotene, provitamin A) are antioxidants which are essential in the human diet and which reduce the onset of chronic diseases. Research in the unit on the carotenoid pathway has provided the tools and strategies to deliver foods with increased levels of nutritional carotenoids. This has led to the production of novel food supplements and to Golden Rice (GR), a humanitarian product aimed at alleviating Vitamin A deficiency in the developing world. Field and intervention trials have shown that GR is effective and its production feasible. The research has led to beneficial impacts on health and welfare, international development, commerce, public understanding and education.