FINDING smarter and more sustainable ways to protect crops from pests, pathogens and weeds is the motivation behind a new strategic alliance between Rothamsted Research and Bayer.

The two are to work together in a number of research areas, from real-time detection of pests in the environment, to understanding the evolution of resistance, and from the identification of new insecticides to novel approaches to controlling pests.

“Over the years we have conducted many projects in collaboration with Bayer, in the areas of both animal health and crop science,” said Rothamsted's head of biointeractions and crop protection Lin Field. “These collaborations have allowed us, for instance, to take our fundamental knowledge of insecticide mode of action and resistance into the wider agro-chemical industry to support more sustainable use of insecticides for both veterinary applications and crop protection.”

Ms Field added: “A major ongoing project concerns ‘bee toxicogenomics’, which seeks to understand how bees metabolise insecticides and to inform the design of more selective chemistry. The new alliance will foster and support further collaborations and exchanges of ideas in areas of science and innovation that are of great importance for everyone.”

Global head of research and development at Bayer's Crop Science division, Adrian Percy, explained: “The strategic alliance with Rothamsted will help us find further sustainable solutions for the challenges that we face in modern agriculture. Bundling the expertise, know-how and exchange of ideas will lead to further innovation in our company.

“Crops are exposed to a wide range of both biotic and abiotic stresses, and we expect our enhanced collaboration with Rothamsted to help us develop a better understanding of how these factors can be more sustainably managed to reduce crop losses worldwide and manage resistance more effectively.”

Head of digital farming at Bayer, Tobias Mennehe, pointed out that the agricultural environment is now one in which data can be collated and accessed electronically to model and forecast how threats are evolving.

“We are absolutely convinced that ‘digital farming’ will revolutionise agriculture," said Mr Mennehe. "New technologies that detect stress factors long before they become visible to the human eye can help farmers to make better informed decisions earlier and more precisely. Fertiliser and crop protection can be applied at the best possible time and at the optimal dosage, using no more or less than the plant needs.”

Rothamsted's director and chief executive, Achim Dobermann, said that the heart of the research was the need to feed a growing world population in a more sustainable manner: “Although research institutions such as ours can contribute much in addressing that challenge, we need to partner with others, including industry, to achieve real breakthroughs and have bigger impacts. This alliance will provide us with a whole new opportunity to work together on complex challenges, towards making farming more precise, more productive – and more sustainable.”