Why fusarium risk is rising in wheat and how to manage it

Professor Simon Edwards writes for Farmers Weekly

With rising incidence of fusarium ear blight and changes to mycotoxin legal limits on the horizon, experts are advising wheat growers to adopt a more water-tight, integrated approach to minimising the problems in future seasons.

Fera started recording incidence of Fusarium ear blight symptoms in 1991 and since that point, there have been three seasons of severe infection: in 1998, 2007 and 2012 (see graph 1).

While there have been fluctuations after each disease explosion, levels have never returned to pre-epidemic heights and each has represented a step change in risk to the yield and quality of UK wheat crops.

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