The Worshipful Company of Fruiterers has awarded travel and investigation awards for groundbreaking research into bio-control of pests to three British horticultural scientists.
Dr Michelle Fountain of East Malling Research (EMR) will be funded to travel to the Institute of Biological Control conference in Budapest, to meet and collaborate with other entomologists on her advanced work on control methods for the tarnished plant bug, and other capsid species which cause so much damage to soft-fruit crops each year.
The Scottish Crop Research Institute’s Dr Scott Johnson has developed a vine weevil larvae detection technique using x-ray tomography and will be funded to travel to exchange research findings with Richard Mankin and his team, at the US department of agriculture, who are the leading experts on non-invasive, commercial plantation detection of vine weevils.
Dr Xianging Xu of EMR is being funded to attend the 10th Epidemiology Workshop in New York, where he will present his research findings on biological control of grey mould on strawberries and population genetics of apple scab in monoculture and mixed orchards.
Will Sibley, chairman of the Fruiterers’ Company Awards Council, said: “These are particularly deserving awards and we are very pleased to sponsor young plant scientists who need to share their experience and gain from an international perspective on their work. We encourage other plant scientists to tell us about their work and apply for grants to assist them in the development of new ways to combat pests and diseases and to improve growing and harvesting techniques.”
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