The impact of fungicide treatment and Integrated Pest Management on barley yields: Analysis of a long term field trials database

Abstract

This paper assesses potential for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques to reduce the need for fungicide use without negatively impacting yields. The impacts of three disease management practices of relevance to broad acre crops-disease resistance, forecasting disease pressure, and fungicide use-were analysed to determine impact on yield using a long-term field trials database of Scottish spring barley, with information from experiments across the country regarding yield, disease levels, and fungicide treatment. Due to changes in data collection practices, data from 1996-2010 were only available at trial level, while data from 2011-2014 were available at plot level. For this reason, data from 1996-2014 were analysed using regression models, while a subset of farmer relevant varieties was taken from the 2011-2014 data, and analysed using ANOVA, to provide additional information of particular relevance to current farm practice. While fungicide use reduced disease severity in 51.4%of a farmer-relevant subset of trials run 2011-2014, and yields were decreased by 0.62t/ha on average, this was not statistically significant in 65% of trials. Fungicide use had only a minor impact on profit in these trials, with an average increase of 4.4% for malting and 4.7% for feed varieties, based on fungicide cost and yield difference; potential savings such as reduced machinery costs were not considered, as these may vary widely. Likewise, the1996-2014 database showed an average yield increase of 0.74t/ha due to fungicide use, across a wide range of years, sites, varieties, and climatic conditions. A regression model was developed to assess key IPM and site factors which influenced the difference between treated and untreated yields across this 18-year period. Disease resistance, season rainfall, and combined disease severity of the three fungal diseases were found to be significant factors in the model. Sowing only highly resistant varieties and, as technology improves, forecasting disease pressure based on anticipated weather would help to reduce and optimise fungicide use. I.

Application of widely used fungicides does not necessarily affect grain yield, and incidence of Fusarium spp. and mycotoxins DON, HT-2 and T-2 in spring barley in northern climates

“…Also, the spraying with fungicides had not a clear effect on the barley yield and 1000 kernel weight, and primarily the study year was the main factor that affected barley yield and 1000 kernel weight. As in our study, Stetkiewicz et al, (2019) also concluded that application of fungicide had no effect on barley yield. From the long-term field trials, the application of fungicides resulted in a significant yield increase in only 35% of cases (Stetkiewicz et al, 2019).…”

“…As in our study, Stetkiewicz et al, (2019) also concluded that application of fungicide had no effect on barley yield. From the long-term field trials, the application of fungicides resulted in a significant yield increase in only 35% of cases (Stetkiewicz et al, 2019). On the other hand, in other field trials with spring barley it was shown that the impact of year had a stronger influence on the plant diseases; and spraying of more resistant varieties with fungicides at late growth stage decreased the yield (Sooväli and Koppel, 2009).…”

Relationships between Plant Architecture Traits and Cotton Yield within the Plant Height Range of 80–120 cm Desired for Mechanical Harvesting in the Yellow River Valley of China

“…However, long-term databases can potentially provide useful information regarding this issue, as data can be collected in a number of weather and agronomic situations, within the same region [28]. In fact, the use of long-term databases has been considered a useful way of teasing apart complex relationships and causality in scientific studies [39,40] despite of their varying levels of quality and consistency [39].…”

“…Analysing data collected across a range of sites, in different fields, with different weather conditions, and different management practices, can offer useful insight into which factors are most influential in determining the impact of treatment [28].…”

In vitro antimicrobial effect of metallic nanoparticles on phytopathogenic strains of crop plants

“…is the most frequent and convenient method for achieving effective control during the growing season (Navi, Huynh, Mayers, & Yang, 2019;Stetkiewicz, Burnett, Ennos, & Topp, 2019). However, controlling plant pathogenic bacteria and fungi by chemical substances causes adverse consequences to ecosystems as well as human health (Boudh & Singh, 2019).…”