Growers, agronomists and the wider public now have free access to more than 50 years of arable pest and disease data from across England and Wales.

Following a three-year project funded by Defra, agricultural consultancy group Adas launched an online platform allowing free availability of current and historic data collected as part of the annual Defra Survey of Crop Pests and Diseases.

Each year since 1970, approximately 300 samples of winter wheat and 90 samples of winter oilseed rape, along with information on pesticides, have been collected from randomly selected fields across England and Wales and assessed for pest and disease.

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Stakeholders now have open access to the database, which can be used to identify trends and map nationwide crop pressures over the past half-century.

All the data displayed on the platform is anonymised. Pest data is due to be added to the platform in the coming months.

Forecasting improvements

Those involved with the project hope that by opening access benefits such as improvements in pest and disease risk forecasting will follow.

The dataset will also inform about crop breeding priorities and could assist with understanding the impact of pesticide legislation and weather pattern changes.

Julie Smith, Adas principal research scientist and lead for the project, said: “This is the first time since the Defra Pest and Disease Survey began over 50 years ago that all the insightful data collected from the field is readily available.

“We’ve worked hard to ensure this powerful dataset gives an accurate representation of growing pressures across England and Wales over multiple decades and that the data is easy to explore and visualise.”

Individual farmers can use the dataset to explore trends across seasons and the impact of integrated pest management choices such as variety selection, sowing date decisions, or different agronomy practices.

“We want this to be a useful open resource for anybody wishing to explore and understand crop pests and disease trends, whether they are a farmer, researcher or a policy maker.”

The Defra Survey of Crop Pests and Diseases will continue in 2024 and this year’s data will be added to the database once all the 2024 winter wheat and winter oilseed rape crop samples have been collected and analysed.

Julie added: “This fantastic resource would not have been possible without the thousands of farmers who have taken part in the Defra survey since it began.

“Their contributions and continued support have meant everyone now can look back, see the bigger picture of crop pest and disease emergence, and find new ways to build our national resilience to crop disease and pest threats.

“We also fully acknowledge and thank Fera for their contribution in coordinating the surveys over the past years.”