{"id":13647,"date":"2026-04-14T06:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/13647\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T06:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:20:11","slug":"uk-pea-virus-trials-aim-to-cut-crop-losses-in-vining-peas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/13647\/","title":{"rendered":"UK pea virus trials aim to cut crop losses in vining peas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sunny<\/a>Image: \u00a9Konoplytska
\n | iStock
\n Researchers are using UK pea virus disease trials to understand and reduce crop losses in vining peas, improving resilience and farm productivity<\/p>\n

Virus infections, mainly spread by aphids, lower yield and quality, which impacts farm productivity<\/a> and profitability. The current trials will test simple, real-world methods to detect, manage, and mitigate virus outbreaks, aiming to help growers grow stronger crops.<\/p>\n

Rising pea virus threats put UK crops at risk<\/p>\n

Virus infections are becoming problematic and costly for the farming sector, with farmgate losses estimated at \u00a365 million per year.<\/p>\n

Turnip Yellows Virus is a key threat to peas and can significantly reduce crop yields, with some studies suggesting losses of up to 40%. However, many of these figures are based on modelling rather than direct evidence from commercial crops.<\/p>\n

Climate change is driving changing weather patterns, which are contributing to increased infection risk.<\/a> Climate change is also causing earlier aphid migration, exposing crops to virus pressure earlier in the season, particularly when peas are drilled later in spring.<\/p>\n

New research initiative aims to deliver practical answers for growers<\/p>\n

The new research project, backed by Defra\u2019s ADOPT fund, will tackle the growing threat posed by pea viruses to UK crops. The researchers hope to provide farmers with evidence on when and how control measures are justified.<\/p>\n

The project will unite the Processors and Growers Research Organisation (PGRO)<\/a> and growers from the Green Pea Company network to produce field-based answers.<\/p>\n

The researchers will start their investigation by using high-throughput sequencing to identify the full range of viruses present in UK pea crops. This approach will allow them to detect both well-known and less obvious viruses.<\/p>\n

Erin Matlock, PGRO Research Agronomist, said: \u201cAlongside this diagnostic work, a series of farm-scale tramline trials will be established to test different aphicide programmes and, crucially, the timing of applications across crops drilled on different dates.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy comparing treated and untreated tramlines, the trials will provide practical evidence on when intervention is justified and when it may not be necessary. The results are expected to support more precise integrated pest management decisions and help growers target control measures more effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project forms part of a wider programme that enables growers to test ideas directly on their own farms, and provide robust, practical evidence that can be applied across the industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image: \u00a9Konoplytska | iStock Researchers are using UK pea virus disease trials to understand and reduce crop losses…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[6318,6319,5,6],"class_list":["post-13647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-crops","tag-farming-industry","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116401617136601605","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}