Deliverables
Basic and strategic research results on the natural enemies of the pests of oilseed rape and their value for biological control from the project have been widely disseminated and published on a free-to-use-basis.
Presentations have been made at major international and national meetings and at the International Symposium 'Integrated Pest Management in Oilseed Rape' held at Göttingen, Germany during 3-5 April 2006. A major achievement of the project has been the publication of the monograph 'Biocontrol of oilseed rape insect pests' published by Blackwell science in 2003, using information collated during the earlier EU concerted action BORIS and added to during the project MASTER.
This provided an invaluable database throughout the duration of the project. 166 scientific papers have been produced from the project to date, with more to come. These are listed on the project website:
(http://www.rothamsted.bbsrc.ac.uk/pie/master/master.htm.).
Phenological Activity Tables for 6 key parasitoids in winter oilseed rape have been produced. These describe the influence of weather data on the activity of these parasitoids in the field.
The 'Phenological Activity Tables' were used to incorporate phenological models for the 6 key parasitoids into the DSS proPlant and can also be used for incorporation in other DSSs. Analyzing daily weather conditions, the systems can predict the start and the activity periods for key parasitoids in the oil seed rape crop.
Combined with the existing models for major pests in winter oilseed rape, this information will help to define spray windows for insecticide application that are compatible with parasitoid conservation. The forecasts that are provided by the models can be used to time vital treatments, possibly at the beginning of parasitoid migration.
Observations, however, suggest extremely long periods of parasitoid activity and several peaks of migration. If treatment is carried out at the beginning of migration in general, it will have no effect on those parasitoids that migrate at a later date, because of the decreasing efficacy of the applied chemical.
The 'Phenological Activity Tables' will be prepared for publication during winter 2006/7 and will be made available on a free-to-use basis.
Technical guidelines on IPM strategies for oilseed rape pests incorporating biological control (D3) have been produced. These are based on collaborative farm-scale field experiments conducted and replicated across Estonia, Germany, Poland, Sweden and the UK.
These compared two pest management systems for winter rape within a cereal rotation: a Standard System and an Integrated Pest Management System. In the latter, certain husbandry practices (such as soil tillage, plant density, cultivar and insecticide input) were modified to conserve parasitoids and predators and thereby minimise pesticide use.
The experiments showed that a farming system based on the principles of Integrated Crop Management with reduced tillage and non-inversion cultivation of soil (to conserve predators, pathogens and over-wintering parasitoids) can be recommended to farmers as a strategy to actively enhance natural enemy populations and thereby improve biocontrol of economically-important pests of winter oilseed rape and decrease environmental impact and use less resources.
Technical Guidelines on the IPM Strategy have been produced for end-users in the agricultural industry, the scientific community, the EU commission and other policy-makers and will be published in the IOBC Bulletin 'Integrated Control in Oilseed Crops'.
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