NextGen Climate Change Conference – The Fruit Grower

NextGen’s Climate Change conference, which took place on 27 March at the De Vere Wokefield Estate in Reading, Berkshire, no doubt inspired delegates as the learned how the UK’s leading fruit and vine specialists are adapting to, and preparing for, climate change, which may offer some opportunities for the UK’s fruit and vine sectors. Rachel Anderson reports.

NextGen’s Climate Change Conference, sponsored by BASF, Biobest, Biogrow, Kirkland, Netafim, and Waddington Europe, featured presentations from more than 12 guest speakers and was chaired by fruit and hop grower Ali Capper, Executive Chair of British Apples and Pears. Welcoming the many delegates, Ali said: “I think climate change is an important topic for us to come together and discuss. We often get together and talk about pest and disease, we talk about R&D, and we talk about our agronomy challenges, but we don’t often stop and talk about those big strategic issues”.

Simon Conway asserted that, when it comes to crop protection, “we’ve got to find solutions” but currently “there’s a lot of frustration in that the UK regulatory framework for crop protection is very uncertain, we do need some policy”. Rob Saunders of Hutchinsons, added: “It feels like we’ve got our hands tied behind our backs right now. I think I’m right in saying that since Brexit, we’ve had four new active ingredients approved in the UK, against about 14 in Europe. So perhaps, now the National Action Plan for Pesticides has been published, we will be able to make up some ground. But it feels like we need to be engaging with the regulators to get into a better situation”.

Rob highlighted the importance of both monitoring and investing in research. He added that predation, for example, daytime predation with birds, and night-time predation with bats, and, in turn, the water and grassland which supports populations of insects, should also be a focus for top-fruit growers in future. “We spent the last 30 years thinking like chemists, we do x, we get y, we should be spending the next 30 years thinking like biologists about wildlife populations out there”.