The Alternative Crops Technology Interaction Network (Actin) is holding a seminar on 'natural' pest control methods next month.

The seminar, which is taking place on February 27 at the Royal Society in London, will look at how non-food crops such as hemp, flax and oilseeds can be used to produce oils, starches, fibres and chemical components to make environment-friendly pesticides.

International scientists have already discovered a compound derived from catmint that mimics greenfly sex pheromones and attracts wasps and lacewings which then attack the aphids.

Actin chairman Ben Gill said: 'The commercial potential of non-food crops is now widely recognised. I hope this seminar will promote the advantages of investing in non-food crops and ways in which these can be adapted for completely different markets such as pest control.'

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