BBRO raises a ‘wall of yellow’ against a virus set to reduce yields by 30%

It is estimated that there will be yield loss of 30-50% for sugar beet growers this year due to a resurgence in Virus Yellows, a disease spread by peach potato aphids. BBRO is working hard to find alternatives to the neonicotinoid seed treatments that have historically been used to protect the crop.

Dr Alistair Wright says the organisation will be showing a ‘Wall of Yellow’ in the Innovation Hub at the Royal Norfolk Show. It will demonstrate advances in seed breeding aimed at finding varieties of sugar beet that are tolerant or resistant to this devastating viral disease.

He says: “Virus Yellows is transmitted by aphids, which – due to our mild winter – have been able to overwinter along with the virus.

“For 2024 the Virus Risk Forecast predicts infection rates without protection to be 84%; therefore, the sugar beet industry has been authorised to use a neonicotinoid product (CruiserSB). However, we are trying a host of different approaches to avoid this in the future.”

A Virus Yellows Taskforce was set-up in 2023 to ‘supercharge’ the research in this area, and work includes: investigating the development of mature resistance to the virus in aphids; push-pull strategies to draw the aphids away from the crop and into flowering or brassica strips; coloured dyes to divert the aphid away from green shoots; testing for virus tolerance/resistance in existing varieties; and gene editing.

Dr Wright continues: “The change in law has opened up opportunities to explore gene editing and we are a sub-partner in a new Innovate UK project between British Sugar, Tropic BioScience and The John Innes Centre.

“This work will be ground-breaking when it is commercially available – but this is still a long way off. Any advancements made will have to go through rigorous testing before entering a breeding programme. But this could finally give our crop immunity to the Virus Yellows complex”.

Sugar beet production is a vital part of Norfolk’s agricultural economy, with more than half of the UK’s national crop processed in the county each year. The crop offers an opportunity for farmers to break up pest and disease cycles on their farms, such as black grass. The crop also helps to break up workloads on-farm as it is sown in the spring and harvested in autumn and winter, whilst also providing a vital habitat and food source to migrating birds such as pink-footed geese.

More information can be found at https://bbro.co.uk/on-farm/vy-knowledge-hub/.

The ‘Wall of Yellow’ will be featured in the Agri-TechE Innovation Hub at the Royal Norfolk Show 2024 on 26-27th June. The hub is sponsored by BBRO.