Speaker
Description
Reducing the harmful impact of pesticides is a key challenge faced by the agricultural industry globally. In many countries, policies have been introduced to discourage the use of pesticides, while encouraging the use of alternative methods of crop disease control. One such method is Integrated Pest Management (IPM), a set of holistic and sustainable measures for the prevention, monitoring and control of crop diseases \citep{pesticidenationalactionplan}. While many IPM measures are acknowledged to offer effective control, their implementation has thus far been limited in the UK.
To explore the potential impact of policy on the adoption of IPM by crop growers in the UK, we developed a joint epidemiological-behavioural model \citep{vincent2025modelling,vincent2026modelling}. Within a simulated outbreak of Septoria tritici blotch (STB), growers could choose to switch between two disease control strategies based on their relative profitability: IPM, and a conventional fungicide regime. In these simulations, we found that the projected rate of IPM adoption would not meet the UK's pesticide reduction targets for 2030. We also found that policies addressing behavioural barriers among crop growers had the greatest potential to increase adoption trends, compared to other forms of incentive.
Bibliography
@article{vincent2025modelling,
title={Modelling the effectiveness of Integrated Pest Management strategies for the control of Septoria tritici blotch},
author={Vincent, Elliot MR and Hill, Edward M and Parnell, Stephen},
journal={PLoS computational biology},
volume={21},
number={8},
pages={e1013352},
year={2025},
publisher={Public Library of Science San Francisco, CA USA},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013352}
}
@article{vincent2026modelling,
title={Modelling the adoption of Integrated Pest Management: informing policy approaches to pesticide-reduction targets.},
author={Vincent, Elliot MR and Parnell, Stephen and Hill, Edward M},
journal={agriRxiv},
number={2026},
pages={20260031407},
year={2026},
publisher={CABI Wallingford UK},
doi = {10.31220/agriRxiv.2026.00395},
}
@misc{pesticidenationalactionplan,
title={{UK Pesticides National Action Plan 2025: Working for a more sustainable future}},
author={{UK Government}},
url = {https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-pesticides-national-action-plan-2025/uk-pesticides-national-action-plan-2025-working-for-a-more-sustainable-future},
year = {2025},
urldate = {15 March 2026}
}
