Following a three-year project funded by Defra, ADAS has launched a new platform providing free public access to more than 50 years of arable crop disease data from England and Wales.
It uses current and historic data from the annual Defra Survey of Crop Pests and Diseases, and is open to growers, agronomists, researchers and members of the public. Pest data will be added in the coming months.
Since 1970, around 300 samples of winter wheat and 90 samples of oilseed rape have been collected, along with pesticide inputs. Fields across England and Wales were selected randomly and the data was assessed for signs of pest and disease infestation.
Using this data, the platform will enable people to identify trends and map nationwide crop pressures. Data is fully anonymised.
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. 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.”
Samples collected in the 2024 survey will be added once the data is analysed.
It can be accessed at www.pestanddiseasesurvey.co.uk