Varah, A., Ahodo, K., Coutts, S.R. et al. (8 more authors) (2020) The costs of human-induced evolution in an agricultural system. Nature Sustainability, 3 (1). pp. 63-71. ISSN 2398-9629
Abstract
Pesticides have underpinned significant improvements in global food security, albeit with associated environmental costs. Currently, the yield benefits of pesticides are threatened as overuse has led to wide-scale evolution of resistance. Despite this threat, there are no large-scale estimates of crop yield losses or economic costs due to resistance. Here, we combine national-scale density and resistance data for the weed Alopecurus myosuroides (black-grass) with crop yield maps and an economic model to estimate resistance impacts. We estimate that the annual cost of resistance in England is £0.4 billion in lost gross profit (2014 prices) and annual wheat yield loss due to resistance is 0.8 million tonnes. A total loss of herbicide control against black-grass would cost £1 billion and 3.4 million tonnes of lost wheat yield annually. Worldwide, there are 253 herbicide-resistant weeds, so the global impact of resistance could be enormous. Our research supports urgent national-scale planning to combat resistance and an incentive for increasing yields through food-production systems rather than herbicides.
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 The Author(s). This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Nature Sustainability. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. | ||||
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield | ||||
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) > Department of Animal and Plant Sciences (Sheffield) | ||||
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Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield | ||||
Date Deposited: | 02 Mar 2020 12:34 | ||||
Last Modified: | 23 Jun 2020 00:38 | ||||
Status: | Published | ||||
Publisher: | Springer Science and Business Media LLC | ||||
Refereed: | Yes | ||||
Identification Number: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0450-8 | ||||
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