Tuesday 30th November 2021, 10:39 London

Fruitnet.com

SIT trial heralds pesticide-free future

UK start-up hails success of world-first chemical-free insect-control trial that reduces SWD by 91 per cent

British fruit growers moved a step closer to chemical-free production after a world-first field trial using sterile insects achieved a 91 per cent reduction in the detection of destructive pest spotted-wing drosophila (SWD).

Reading-based agritech start-up BigSis conducted the trial using an updated version of the sterile insect technique (SIT) in partnership with BerryGardens, the UK’s largest supplier of berries and cherries, and the world-renowned research institute NIAB EMR.

SIT has long been recognised as “the perfect solution” for insect pest control, BigSis founder Glen Slade said, but in the 60 years since it was conceived, it’s always been too expensive to deploy beyond a limited number of special-use cases.

However, BigSis turned to artificial intelligence and robotics to automate SIT, he revealed: a breakthrough that slashed the cost of SIT solutions by as much as 90 per cent.

SIT’s basic premise is simple, he explained: sterilise and release male insects into the crop, where they mate with wild females to prevent the rapid increase in pest populations that leads to crop damage.

“We’re finally bringing SIT to growers as an affordable, farm-scale solution for insect pest control in agricultural crops,” he said.

Conducted in Kent, the field trial focused on the control of SWD, a global invasive pest of softfruit, first detected in the UK in 2012, that can cause thousands of pounds worth of damage.

Growers spend up to £11,000 per hectare using currently approved chemical treatments and labour-intensive hygiene measures in a bid to control the pest, BigSis said.

BigSis released sterile male SWD in and around a corp of everbearing strawberries between April and the end of harvest. Using sticky traps with lures, numbers of wild female SWD were monitored at the treated site and two control sites.

During the trial, numbers of female SWD in the treated plot barely rose above one trap per week, compared to a peak of nearly ten insects per trap per week in untreated controls, BigSis said.