BCPC JOINT EXPERT REVIEW 2025 – Changing Practices

Thursday 27 November 2025
Rothamsted Conference Centre
Event fee: £45.00+VAT
BOOK YOUR SEAT HERE

This year the BCPC Weeds Review, Diseases Review, and Pests and Beneficials Review are being combined into a single event, on 27 November.

Farming practices are having to balance the numerous pressures of food production, climate change, government policy and the environment while also managing a sustainable and profitable business. These pressures impact how weeds, diseases and pests are managed and the Expert Groups have pulled together a programme of speakers who will share their experiences of how crop production practices are adapting to integrate changing cultivation methods, biocontrols and new technologies.

The presentations will aim to inform, educate and as always spark plenty of discussion amongst the attendees. Spaces will be limited and as a past invitee/attendee to the Expert Reviews this is a priority invitation to book your seat.

Programme Highlights

Registration: 0930
Chairman’s introduction:  Sir Peter Kendall
Setting the Scene: Prof Paul Wilson, Nottingham University

Session 1: Changing Practices

• Defra Update on IPM and Pesticide Resistance – Holly Alpren, Defra
• Is regenerative agriculture compatible with sustainable crop protection? – Jonathan Storkey, Rothamsted
• Jenny Bussell, Allerton Project
• ‘Green Grassland Corridor’ and beneficial insects – Patrick Barker, Barker Bros

Lunch and PhD/early career Posters

• Understanding true eyespot disease of cereals: past, present & future – Fareed Bhatti
• Understanding the genetic source of resistance against the Barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) in a resistant wheat variety – Iza Sandoval-Carvajal
• Fungal spore dispersal in UK arable crop systems under current and future environmental conditions – Patrick McClean
• Modelling regional scale fungicide resistance in Septoria tritici blotch with heterogeneous grower behaviour to inform resistance management – Iona McCabe
• Effects of environmental factors and pathogen populations on severity of light leaf spot on oilseed rape’  – Javeria Wajid
• ENIGMA I – Wireworm IPM project – Larissa Collins

Session 2: Solutions & New Technologies

• Precision Breeding – Opportunities & Challenges for UK farmers – Tom Allen-Stevens, BOFIN
• Dyson Farming: Past, Present and Future – Ben Abell, Dyson
• Simon Pearson, Lincolnshire Institute for AgriFood Technology

Panel Discussion & Q&A

To accommodate the broader coverage of this year’s Review, we have moved venues to Rothamsted Conference Centre. While this will increase the capacity for delegate numbers, attendance will still be on a first-come first-served.

This event is by invitation. If you have not received an invitation and would like to attend please use the contact form.

Previous Pest and Benficials Review presentations can be viewed from the links below: