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A workshop on pollinators led by Dr Martine Barons and Professor Jim Smith from the Department of Statistics at the ¹û¶³´«Ã½ was featured on BBC Radion 4's Farming Today programme this morning. The podcast can be found here: . .

The 24 March 2016 saw the launch of a new Centre for Crop Health and Protection (CHAP) established under the government’s Agri-Tech strategy, which was initiated in 2013 to ensure that its investment in agriculture delivers material benefits for society and the economy in the UK and overseas.

CHAP will lead the way in developing solutions to the challenges facing world agriculture, bringing together the best expertise, knowledge and insight from leading research organisations and industries in the sector. This collaboration between academia and industry will, for the first time, give farmers access to the best and most sustainable technologies, strategies and protocols to improve crop performance, making a real difference at the farm gate.

¹û¶³´«Ã½ researchers will be developing novel control technologies to tackle a range of pests and diseases that are responsible for significant crop losses in fresh produce. The number of active ingredients available to growers is decreasing all the time, so the demand for novel control technologies with minimal environmental impacts has never been greater. Potential new products and approaches to their application will be evaluated and refined in ¹û¶³´«Ã½’s controlled environment and field trial facilities, and integrated into commercially viable crop management strategies.