Norwich scientists have accelerated their efforts to find new solutions to a crop disease which has sparked fears for the future viability of East Anglia's sugar beet industry.
After many growers suffered significant losses from virus yellows last year, farming leaders said a combination of low prices and disease threats had made sugar beet too risky to grow for some, with a new support package offered by British Sugar earlier this month criticised as not doing enough to stop farmers abandoning the crop.
The unpredictable weather is another variable - although the cold winter did provide a welcome bonus this week. After our freezing January and February killed off virus-carrying aphids, scientific modelling indicated only 8pc of the beet crop was likely to be infected with virus yellows disease this year, meaning a controversial emergency approval of banned neonicotinoid pesticides would no longer be needed this spring.
But the threat of the virus remains, prompting the industry to reaffirm its commitment to finding alternatives to these chemicals.
And Prof Mark Stevens, head of science at the Norwich-based British Beet Research Organisation, said the scientific community was up for that challenge.
He said there was no reason why developments in seed varieties could not continue the meteoric rise in sugar beet yields, which have grown 25pc in the last 10 years - if you ignore 2020, when a "perfect storm" of bad weather and pest numbers meant some growers lost up to 80pc of their yield.
And some extraordinary efforts are under way across East Anglia to find new weapons against virus yellows - including inoculating 100,000 sugar beet plants with infected aphids, by hand, to search for disease-resistant varieties.
Prof Stevens said: "I think science has a fundamental role in providing that security [to growers]. We have seen it work before. The sugar beet industry has always adopted new technologies, and science will come up with the solutions.
"Neonicotinoids were a fantastic one-stop solution for stopping aphids and viruses, but what we are seeing now is an acceleration of all sorts of new opportunities that will hopefully ensure sugar beet retains its important place in the East Anglian farming rotation.
"Working with plant breeders to identify tolerance and resistance to virus yellows is a major part of our efforts at the moment.
"We are increasing those efforts, hand-inoculating almost 100,000 plants at two or three locations in East Anglia to help identify these future tolerant and resistant varieties.
"We'll take the aphids out in batches and let them feed on plants in the field, then we treat the area to kill them after 48 hours so they don't spread the virus.
"We can use drones and a range of different cameras to look at symptom development, in addition to ground observations.
"The plants have been bred with wild relatives of sugar beet which are a good source of different resistance genes. They have been identified over time using conventional breeding methods, to breed them into elite commercial varieties of sugar beet. It can take up to 12 years, so it is not a fast process."
Although conventional plant breeding for disease resistance is a key part of the strategy, Prof Stevens said the BBRO was "keeping a close eye" on the government's consultation on gene editing techniques, which could open the door for much faster development of resistant sugar beet varieties.
He also highlighted a project under way at the John Innes Centre, also based at the Norwich Research Park, which is exploring new molecular approaches to tackle virus yellows by using viral RNAs (ribonucleic acids) which are described as "messengers" carrying genetic codes from an organism's DNA. The team hopes to develop a treatment which can target and degrade the virus itself, without the need for pesticides and chemical sprays.
Prof Stevens said farmers are also looking at ways to harness natural aphid predators and "beneficial insects".
"We know ladybirds and lacewings have a role to play and there is lots of pressure to harness the natural enemies of pests," he said. "We have got some work under way at Morley Farms [near Wymondham] where we are sowing beneficial strips into the crop.
"We can elevate these beneficial populations and hopefully attract them so they have a greater impact on the aphids.
"Or, you can pull the aphids into crops which are more attractive to them. We know the aphids prefer brassicas and, in some of our trials, we planted brassicas among them to pull the aphids out of the beet crop and into the brassica, where they cause less damage."
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