A novel monitoring and forecasting system for the integrated management of bean seed beetle Bruchus rufimanus

To enable improved control of the bean seed beetle, the project will develop a novel integrated pest management (IPM) strategy based on a monitoring system and defined treatment thresholds to rationalise pesticide use, and will represent a more sustainable longer-term approach to allow continuity of supply of high quality field beans for the UK export market and improved quality of broad beans for processing and the fresh market. The project will address three main objectives:
1. To optimise a prototype monitoring trap - accomplished by detailed studies of bruchid response to host plant and insect produced volatile odours, thereby producing a lure based on the most attractive blend of components. The optimum position for traps will be established and the trap catch will be calibrated in relation to bruchid infestation patterns, crop phenology and crop damage.
2. To develop a Decision Support System specifically for bean producers and based on meteorological data, trap catch data, crop growth stage and thresholds. The sytem will indentify the risk to the crop of damage from the pest and advise on the need for and the optimum timing for treatment. It will be developed as a web-based system.
3. Support and deliver the System to UK bean growers via the unique PGRO knowledge transfer portal.

The Project aligns well with the TSB New Approaches to Crop Protection competition since it seeks to enhance crop quality and productivity by targeting a particularly damaging pest (the bean seed or bruchid beetle), which is difficult to detect/control and has a highly detrimental effect on UK bean production and quality, for both national and export markets.

This will allow UK growers to rationalise insecticide use by eliminating unnecessary applications and enabling more efficient, precisely timed and better targeted spray application, thereby reducing costs and prolonging the useful life of the insecticide products available. This approach also supports existing and new EU policy, regulations and requirements. In addition, by rationalising insecticide sprays and eliminating prophylactic treatment the effects on the natural enemies of the pest will be greatly reduced and the overall environmental impact of crop protection will be minimised and thus more sustainable for this part of the Agricultural Industry.

The IPM decision support package will be co-ordinated and made available to UK bean growers by PGRO, which is sponsored by UK pea and bean growers, merchants and processors. It provides a research and development programme, together with an advisory and technical service, to support the production of UK pulses and to deliver knowledge and information through the PGRO knowledge transfer portals.

Since 2004 direct damage by bruchids, despite intensive insecticide application, resulted in a dramatic loss of income for the industry. Bruchid infestation is the main limiting factor to growth in export and home markets for beans for human consumption since damage tolerance levels are so low. UK field beans failing to meet export quality standards because of bruchid damage can be used for animal feed, which has a considerably lower value. Crops with heavy damage are unsuitable even for animal feed. The export quality criteria for beans include a maximum acceptable level of damaged beans of 2% and no live Bruchids within the seed. In some years, the maximum damage level in some crops of beans has been as high as 40%. Blemishes to broad beans caused by bruchid larvae can result in total crop rejection by processors/retailers, with no other outlet. Thus failure to control bruchid has resulted in many UK growers abandoning bean production altogether. Currently the pest can be found in southern and eastern counties of England, but as beans expand in England and in the borders of Scotland, the risk of further dispersal of the pest is increased and in particular, if weather patterns change over time, then summer temperatures may be more favourable for bruchid survival in the more northerly and western parts of UK.
In the UK, field bean or faba bean (Vicia faba) is an important and economically valuable legume break crop since it provides a source of home-grown protein for livestock, a lucrative quality export market for human consumption, and environmental benefits through the requirement of no artificial nitrogen fertiliser but a return of fixed nitrogen to the soil and a source of food for pollinating insects. In order to maintain a continuing crop with export potential, growers need confidence in agronomic practices to be able to produce beans of consistently high quality. The additional potential of an increase in the area grown will add further to the diversity of cropping and the environmental benefits of a legume crop. The provision of a reliable local Decision Support System for UK growers will restore grower confidence by ensuring:
a) bruchid damage levels are more predictable, and
b) insecticide applications are effective, accurately timed to give optimum control levels and that no unnecessary applications are made.
An increased UK production of high quality, unblemished beans for human consumption, with an export potential of £9.8m p.a. in all markets, will allow growers to compete more effectively with growers in other countries.
The proposed Decision Support System is unlike any currently used in UK or Europe since it combines a web-based forecasting system and a monitoring trap to allow growers to monitor on farm but to access a nationally available forecasting system to enable local decisions on crop management to be made. Although the pest is also present in France, the local warning system available to French growers is based entirely on local weather forecasting and any treatment is recommended in the absence of knowledge of pest activity in individual crops. The proposed system will not only improve timing of sprays but will eliminate the need for prophylactic treatments where the pest may not be present, thereby improving the economics of pest control for UK growers. The main challenge for the provision of the Decision Support system will be the development of an effective monitoring trap. A prototype trap already exists and will be developed and improved to provide growers with an alert to the pests arrival in the crop. However, alternative monitoring methods such as field counts will be compared throughout the project during the calibration and determination of damage thresholds. Trap catch will be calibrated with the number of pests in the crop at particular crop growth stages and with the damage resulting from that level of pest and the information fed back into the DSS.
The design and operation of the DSS will be based on an existing forecasting system used successfuly for potato blight. The working DSS will provide the grower with advice about the need for and timing of insecticide application by relating local meteorological conditions, including maximum day time temperature, which is important for bruchid activity, to the growers trap catch and crop growth stage.