Congress Programme

The multilateral world, based loosely on an agreed set of cooperative rules governing international affairs and trade, is arguably being replaced by a new geopolitical realpolitik based more overtly on national self-interest. At the same time, disruptions due to unsustainable growth are becoming more marked, whether for food or other land-based production, or supply chain logistical disruptions.

Together, a new political and geopolitical reality is emerging. Given which, the political primacy of economic growth expectations is likely to result in unsustainable environmental impacts in any real sense; the feedback from a world under pressure is likely to enhance future disruptions, strengthen short-term economic needs, contestation and conflict and result in a vicious circle of further environmental degradation.

Within this context, what are likely to be the drivers on UK agriculture and food systems and how might the notion of food security develop over the next decades?

The UK food system has been increasingly impacted by extreme weather events with significant economic costs. Climate change and increases in extreme weather events are one of the highest risk shocks to the UK food system. However, the current scale and pace of adaptation is insufficient to maintain resilience.

This presentation will discuss research from the Met Office and its partners, in collaboration with government and industry, to better understand the impacts of climate change on UK food systems, identify adaptation and resilience measures, and support adaptation uptake.

Agriculture is often criticised for its high greenhouse gas emissions and negative environmental consequences. However, six decades of agricultural productivity and efficiency advances have delivered major per unit of food environmental improvements and more calories per capita to a growing global population.

In the UK productivity gains have been achieved through advances in mechanisation and automation, alongside major developments in farm level variable cost resource use efficiency. Today, policy, trade and net-zero complexities introduce both challenges and opportunities.

This presentation will explore how future advances in science, technology and human capital can drive further improvements, with professionalisation, precision and planning central to success.

This presentation will provide an update on progress towards a UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement. It will provide an overview of the background to the agreement, the publicly available information on progress towards its conclusion, and the anticipated next steps.

The presentation will also explore the potential implications for businesses and stakeholders across the food, farming and wider agri-food sectors, while considering the opportunities and challenges associated with closer UK-EU cooperation on SPS matters.

The May 2025 proposals for ‘dynamic alignment’ of SPS regulations with the EU came as a surprise to many. Since the UK’s EU exit, the Crop Protection industry had spent four years getting to grips with a new world of being regulated in isolation.

Divergence in MRLs and the Northern Ireland Protocol added significant complexity, but the ability to bring new active substances to market ahead of the EU offered critical advantages to UK growers.

As Government negotiations on alignment with the EU continue, uncertainty clouds industry planning again. The hopes, concerns and potential impacts on the UK Crop Protection industry will be discussed.

The EU’s Omnibus Simplification Package is intended to reduce complexity, ease administrative burdens and support faster access to innovation. For the agri-food sector, its importance lies in whether simplification translates into practical improvements for farmers, regulators and companies.

This presentation will explain what the package covers, where the key political debates stand, and why the outcome matters for Europe’s competitiveness, food security and sustainability ambitions. It will also consider whether the current direction is ambitious enough to address existing bottlenecks or whether it risks adding new layers of uncertainty.

John Cussans (Principal Consultant – Weed Science, ADAS)

Dr Aoife O’ Driscoll (Senior Scientist, Plant Pathology, Niab)

• Fungicide resistance continues to reshape disease management across UK cropping systems. While the complete loss of efficacy associated with earlier generations of fungicides remains relatively uncommon, gradual erosion of sensitivity is increasingly evident in several economically important pathogen populations. These shifts are reducing the robustness of disease control programmes and placing greater reliance on fewer effective modes of action. Resistance monitoring has revealed contrasting patterns between diseases, crops and regions, reflecting differences in pathogen biology, fungicide use and selection pressure. Recent developments provide valuable insights into how resistance evolves, how rapidly pathogen populations can adapt, and the challenges of detecting meaningful performance changes before they become widespread in the field. The increasing complexity of resistance mechanisms, including the accumulation of multiple adaptations within pathogen populations, presents a growing challenge for researchers, agronomists and growers alike. At the same time, regulatory constraints and a reduced availability of active ingredients are narrowing management options and increasing the importance of protecting the efficacy of existing chemistry. Drawing on recent research and monitoring programmes, this presentation will examine key trends emerging across UK fungicide resistance surveillance and their implications for disease management and stewardship. Understanding not only where resistance exists, but how pathogen populations are changing over time, is essential if effective fungicide programmes are to be maintained. Future success will depend on combining robust resistance monitoring with integrated disease management strategies that slow adaptation and preserve the value of available crop protection tools.

Dr Sam Cook (Principal Investigator – Lead of Insect IPM, Rothamsted Research)

• Insecticides have a long history of use. However, the repeated and sustained use of the same chemistries has resulted in populations of pests becoming resistant to many of the products relied upon for pest insect management. Darwin’s theory of evolution is occurring before our eyes, resulting in an ‘arms race’ between development of new products and pest resistance to them. This presentation will examine the main mechanisms of insecticide resistance and explore methods to help manage this using the oilseed rape system as an exemplar.

Users of pesticides in the UK are showing increasing interest in the use of drones or unmanned aerial spray systems (UASS) for pesticide application. This interest is due to the perceived benefits, including the minimisation of operator exposure to pesticides when compared with knapsack spraying, and the ability to access difficult terrain, high buildings and other structures. UASS could also limit environmental damage such as soil compaction caused by the use of land-based pesticide application technology, and support the minimisation of pesticide use by enabling more precise spraying.

UASS technology is seen as a reliable, cost-effective option in some scenarios. Recent advances have improved cost effectiveness and reliability, including:

• Accuracy of geo-positioning
• Ability to capture site and pesticide application data
• Applicator technology improvements – lances and precision of pesticide delivery to target

In response to this growing interest, HSE has stepped up its efforts to better understand how the risks associated with exposure to pesticides applied by UASS can be assessed. This improved understanding could enable a more refined UASS-specific risk assessment to be developed, based on a combination of existing risk assessment criteria, where possible, and additional data in key areas.

This presentation will highlight international efforts to understand the risks associated with UASS spraying and outline the work being undertaken in the UK to enable users of pesticides to access this technology whilst remaining compliant with the regulations.

Janet will present a concept which digitalises regulatory guidance for evaluating Technical Specifications of new sources of active substances, using AI to triage submissions and cut processing times.In the EU and GB, new AS source evaluations legally require 52 weeks, but average 15 months globally – even when many new sources data are covered by the reference (already-approved) specifications and do not require expert review.

Bayer has developed an Open Source AI model which sorts applications into administrative or full expert assessment streams.

A pilot with UK HSE CRD is underway, with interest from many other global regulators. This is a low-cost, proven approach to free-up authority expert regulatory resources while cutting straightforward approvals from months to weeks.

The European Precision Application Task Force (EUPAF) was created following a Workshop on Digital Agriculture and Precision Farming held in February 2023, with support from the Fresenius Academy.

EUPAF is a scientific platform to gather expertise in precision applications and risk mitigation measures. It encourages dialogue between experts in the development of precision application. Members include equipment manufacturers, representatives from the farming and crop protection industries, regulatory scientists and risk assessors from both public and private organisations, and research organisations.

This presentation will outline the work of EUPAF and its objectives to provide information that facilitates the recognition of precision applications of crop protection solutions.

This presentation will describe the beginnings of the AgriGuide project, which aims to deliver machine readable labels for plant protection products in the EU. It will cover the development of the label data model, reference data and the platform, as well as the scale-out from an initial pilot in three countries to the whole EU27, and potentially beyond.

The presentation will also explore links with the OECD Digital Label Community of Practice, and the ISO Technical Committee 347 working group developing agrisemantics standards. In addition, it will discuss practical approaches to creating digital labels and demonstrate how this data infrastructure enables aspects of digital agriculture and precision application.