Fifty years of government data on crop pests and diseases has been made accessible to farmers, researchers and the wider public following the launch of a new online platform.

The interactive database has been developed by agricultural and environmental research and consultancy body ADAS following a three-year Defra-funded project.

It contains data collected via the annual Defra Survey of Crop Pests and Diseases.

Every year since 1970, about 300 samples of wheat and 90 samples of oilseed rape, along with information on pesticide inputs, have been collected from randomly-selected fields across England and Wales and assessed for signs of pest and disease infestation.

A yellow rust infection on a wheat plant leafA yellow rust infection on a wheat plant leaf (Image: Antony Kelly) The new online platform will allow the anonymised information in this extensive database to be used to identify trends and map nationwide crop pressures over the last half-century. 

Defra and ADAS hope that opening up public access to this data will lead to improvements in pest and disease risk forecasting, inform crop breeding priorities, and could assist with understanding the impact of pesticide legislation and climate change.

Individual farmers could use it to explore the impact of decisions such as variety choice, sowing date or different agronomy practices, they said.

The project was led by Julie Smith, ADAS principal research scientist, who 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 policymaker."

She added: “This fantastic resource would not have been possible without the thousands of farmers who have taken part in the Defra survey over the last 50 years. Their contributions and continued support have meant everyone now can look back, see the bigger picture of crop pest and disease emergence, and find new ways to build our national resilience to crop disease and pest threats."

The data from the 2024 Defra survey will be added to the database once all winter wheat and oilseed rape crop samples have been collected and analysed.

The online platform can be accessed at www.pestanddiseasesurvey.co.uk/platform