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The 25th Bawden lecture will be delivered by Professor Martin Parry (University College London, UK) and will deal with the potential impact of climate change on European agriculture. Key issues and effects of meteorological trends or changes will be addressed from a world perspective. This highly topical lecture will include discussion of technical, financial and political issues, with particular reference to agricultural crops and crop production.

Chairman: Dr P J Bunyan (BCPC, Farnham, UK)
Session Organiser: Dr D V Alford (BCPC, Farnham, UK)

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This session will present new developments in chemicals and micro-organisms for control of crop pests, including novel active ingredients which have not been reported in detail at scientific meetings, or in scientific literature, prior to the Conference.

Contributions reporting significant advances in the formulation of pesticides or the development of major new uses of established products will be included.

Chairman: Dr G le Patourel (Imperial College, Silwood Park, UK)
Session Organiser: Dr R Bateman (CABI Bioscience, Silwood Park, UK)

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Take-all is the most damaging disease caused by a root-infecting fungus in cereals grown in temperate climates and, to date, has not proved amenable to control by resistant cultivars or fungicides. This session concentrates on new ideas and developments for managing take-all through crop husbandry and the use of chemicals.

The chairman will describe the background to new developments in an extended introduction. Dr David Hornby (IACR-Rothamsted, UK) will present new information from research on factors that are known to affect take-all and consider their role in disease management strategies.

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In the past, the development of agrochemical formulations with optimised biological activity has relied mainly on empirical or heuristic testing procedures. This session will explore ways in which this process might be rationalised from a better understanding of the physicochemical factors involved and recognition of the increasingly important role of adjuvants in formulation design.

Invited speakers will include Dr Bill Lankford (Rhône-Poulenc Agriculture, Ongar, UK) who will discuss the factors influencing biological performance of insecticide formulations and Dr Peter Chapman (PSD, York, UK) will explain the revised regulations for tank-mix adjuvants in Great Britain.

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This session will examine the impact on modern agriculture of recent concerns on food safety, e.g. the introduction of genetically modified crops. Many organisations are seeking changes to agricultural practices and this session will examine the direction and implications of these demands.

Invited speakers in this session will include Mr Geoffrey Podger (MAFF, London, UK) who will describe the guiding principles of the proposed Food Standards Agency emphasising the key role of the protection of public health in relation to food. Mr Stephen Ridge (Somerfield Stores Ltd, Bristol, UK) will describe the approaches being taken by retailers to meet customer demands and retail issues surrounding genetically modified crops. Consumer groups have also lobbied for a number of changes in farm production methods, these views will be described by Ms Ruth Evans (National Consumer Council, London, UK).

Chairman and Session Organiser: Dr R Burt (MAFF, London, UK)

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Integrated crop management (ICM) aims to achieve sustained profitability from a whole-farm strategy that is characterised by the precise or reduced use of chemical inputs to minimise adverse environmental effects. Results are beginning to emerge from several major ICM projects that have been underway for a number of years in the UK.

This session will focus on how the various projects have approached the problems associated with the design, methodology and interpretation of ICM experimentation in field crops. Recent results will be used to illustrate and discuss the merits and drawbacks associated with each approach to ICM experimentation.

Invited speakers include representatives of the two largest on-going ICM studies in the UK. Dr Vic Jordan (IACR-Long Ashton, UK) will discuss the Less Intensive Farming and the Environment (LIFE) project and Dr Neil Fisher (Rotagrow Ltd, Sutton Bridge, UK) will present information from the Integrated Farming Systems (IFS) project.

Chairman: Dr D A Cooper (MAFF, London, UK)
Session Organiser: Mr J E B Young (ADAS, Boxworth, UK

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The small size and cryptic habits of thrips can create problems in the detection and control of pest species. This session will present recent research on some of the detailed aspects of the biology of thrips in relation to the development of new monitoring and control programmes for problem species in field and glasshouse crops.

Session Organiser: Dr O Macdonald (CSL, York, UK)

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The potential impact of man-made chemicals on the endocrine systems of both wildlife and man has excited a great deal of scientific and media interest in recent months and numerous substances used by the agrochemical industry have been cited as endocrine disrupters. In this session the existing evidence for endocrine disruption will be reviewed and the response of industry discussed.

Invited speakers in this session will include Dr Peter Matthiessen (CEFAS, Burnham on Crouch, UK) who will discuss background evidence for environmental effects and the overall significance for wildlife populations. Dr Barry Elliott (Zeneca, Alderley, UK) will discuss the evidence for mammalian and human health effects. The development of screening techniques and in vitro bioassays will be presented by Professor John Sumpter (Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK) and an industry view will be provided by Dr Rob Taalman (CEFIC, Brussels, Belgium).

Chairman and Session Organiser: Mr N Shillabeer (Zeneca, Brixham, UK)

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In the UK, as in many other countries, the use of pesticides is being scrutinised more closely than ever. Economic pressures are forcing growers to carefully examine the pesticide requirements of crops whilst environmental pressures to reduce pesticide use and to justify each application are becoming more significant. These pressures increase the need for growers, when making decisions on pesticide use, to have access to robust scientific information on the costs and benefits of treatments, presented in a form which can be interpreted easily and rapidly.

Invited speakers will include Dr David Brooks (Consultant, Petworth, UK) who will describe the Decision Support System for Arable Crops (DESSAC), currently under development in the UK. Other invited speakers will discuss alternative approaches for other crops, whilst offered papers will cover other aspects of decision support systems.

Chairman: Dr J Gilmour (BCPC, Farnham, UK)
Session Organiser: Dr D R Jones (ADAS, Rosemaund, UK

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In recent years significant developments have taken place in the environmental risk assessment of pesticides. Key to these developments are improvements in the methods used to predict the fate, behaviour and effects of pesticides under environmentally relevant exposure scenarios, particularly with respect to their impact on non-target organisms and their degradation and mobility in soil. As well as advancing understanding of existing products, these methods assist the development of new, safer pesticides.

This session will focus on novel techniques for measuring/predicting the fate of pesticides in the environment, and their impact on non-target organisms, including examples of how these techniques may help to refine risk assessments for both the aquatic and terrestrial environment. Also included will be examples of new pesticides which demonstrate advantageous or interesting environmental properties.

Session Organisers: Dr I Barber (AgrEvo UK Ltd, Chesterford Park, UK) and Dr J P Benner (Zeneca Agrochemicals, Jealott's Hill, UK)

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This session provides post-graduate students with an opportunity to present the results of their research at a major international event.

Contributions will be selected to complement the diversity of subjects included in the Conference with an emphasis on new and challenging areas of research.

Inclusion in this session gives automatic entry into the poster competition, with a prize being awarded for the best post-graduate student poster. All presentations will be published in the Conference Proceedings.

Session Organiser: Professor P E Russell (AgrEvo UK Ltd, Chesterford Park, UK

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Both Government and Levy Boards spend considerable amounts of money on research aimed at the betterment of the farming industry. The amount of information that is forthcoming from such research, that is both directly and indirectly relevant to growers and their advisers, is increasing every year. "Information overload" is seen as a major problem. To be cost effective the results of both types of funded research need to reach the end user in ways that can be easily understood and utilised. The various ways this can be achieved and the success of such methods will be discussed.

Chairman:Dr P V Biscoe (HGCA, London, UK)
Organiser: Mr C Furk (PSD, York, UK)

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