This webinar will explain how the UK Plant Health Service identifies non-native pests threats and prioritises them. A number of pests that pose a specific threat to the UK fruit industry will be introduced, along with measures that are being put in place to prevent their introduction, as well as ensuring their impact is minimised should they reach the UK.

Rubus breeder Nikki Jennings will describe the latest raspberries to be released from the James Hutton Limited breeding programme and how these have been developed via the innovative underpinning, science of the James Hutton Institute.

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NIAB EMR Presents... Mat Papp-Rupar and Lucas Shuttleworth will present the progress on two EU-funded projects: Bio4Safe and HortiBlueC. The aim of the Bio4safe project is to reduce water and fertiliser use by using seaweed biostimulants and precision irrigation in horticulture. Several seaweed biostimulants have been tested on strawberry and raspberry in optimal and reduced irrigation regime and the effect of biostimulant and irrigation on yield and quality investigated. Additionally, a large grower focused, free access database of biostimulant trials and effects in have been assembled (available at https://bio4safe.eu/en). This will help to guide growers and agronomists to make more informed decisions on how, when and which biostimulant to use for a specific crop. Dr Lucas Shuttleworth will talk about HortiBlueC: Sustainable up-cycling of agro, agrofood and fisheries residues in horticulture and agriculture as bioenergy, biochar and chitin-rich products.

This webinar will outline how data can be used to help optimise an integrated pest management programme. At each stage within the IPM pyramid data can help inform and improve decision making. These marginal improvements throughout the entire programme add up to result in significant improvements in overall efficacy and reliability. In this webinar there will also be specific examples of how biocontrol and biopesticide applications can be optimised to deliver good efficacy consistently.

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NIAB EMR Presents...Graham Caspell will be highlighting the early results from the 2020 pear crop harvested last week.

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From cider apples in Cornwall to pineapples in Panama, new technologies are helping fruit growers around the world stay on top of what's happening on the farm. Join Rob Carter, CEO of fieldmargin, as he shares how using modern software is helping fruit growers improve efficiency. Including satellite and drone imagery, cloud data storage allowing easy information sharing between team members, streamlined reporting and analysis, and more.

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NIAB EMR Presents... The Produce Quality Centre (PQC), is a collaboration between the Natural Resources Institute of the University of Greenwich and NIAB EMR, providing expertise on handling and storage of perishable produce, with the knowledge, skills and facilities to provide high quality independent research for the fresh produce industry. This session will cover handling and storing perishable produce, discussing how the Produce Quality Centre operates and looking at the results of industry-funded projects they have undertaken. The long-standing relationship with growers and packers gives the PQC an understanding of how the fresh produce industry operates and allows us to develop robust trials that will provide reliable results for immediate and practicable application.

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NIAB EMR Presents... Not only are UV robots actively joining the fight against COVID, they are also incredible helpful tools in fruit production. Join this session to learn about UV Robots and see them in action.

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NIAB EMR Presents... The quality of UK wines has dramatically increased this past decade, and further improvements in viticulture will enable the production of the finest quality, globally-recognised, unique wines and an increase in winemakers’ margins. Join Dr. Julien Lecourt to discuss several key topic including Resource Efficiency for Crop Production, Genetics & Crop Improvement and Pest & Pathogen Ecology for Sustainable Crop Management. You will also be taken on a virtual tour of the concept vineyard that Dr. Lecourt and his team oversee.

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NIAB EMR Presents... In this webinar we will present the “Digital Vineyard” – an innovative software platform to collect, present and manage data to support vineyards. The application of artificial intelligence and data-driven technologies such as machine learning are poised to revolutionise agriculture. The use of automation in farming operations and the deployment of technologies driven by the analysis of vast datasets will transform our approach to growing horticulture crops and help to address some of the current challenges such as labour shortages and the effective management of marketable production. NIAB EMR partners with ABACO, a leader in land management systems with more than 30 years of experience, to develop an informatics platform that provides a single view of all agricultural data about vineyards. The system is designed to be open to work with a variety of data collection technologies, supporting NIAB EMR’s ambition to develop precision agriculture tools and deliver them onto farms.

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NIAB EMR Presents... The Growing Kent & Medway cluster is one of the seven projects supported by the UK Research and Innovation’s flagship Strength in Places Fund. The cluster will build upon more than a century of strategic and applied horticulture research undertaken at East Malling (Kent) to deliver a programme of innovation that will boost economic growth in the region. The initiative will promote the adoption of the latest horticulture technologies, plant growing techniques and the development of new and exciting crop varieties. The Growing Kent & Medway project brings together a world-class consortium of businesses and academic institutions, including APS Produce, Berry Gardens Growers, Chapel Down, Gusbourne Estate, Richard Hochfeld Group, Thanet Earth, Worldwide Fruit, Geku Automation, Smurfit Kappa, the Natural Resources Institute (NRI)/University of Greenwich, University of Kent, and is led by the team at NIAB EMR. In this webinar, we will present the main aims of this initiative, including the exciting opportunity to collaborate with members of the cluster through pump-priming projects that will help to drive innovation in horticulture.

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NIAB EMR Presents... Visitors at Fruit Focus LIVE will see many aspects of the on-going strawberry and raspberry research programmes in the WET Centre including: an introduction to the Malling Champion everbearer released in 2019, an exploration of the 10% yield increase of white Cocogreen bags compared to black Cocogreen bags and coverage of four of the eight strawberry tunnels with new Lumitect plastic comparing effects as compared to standard Visqueen film. Additionally, this session will discuss calculated vapour pressure deficits (VPD) in the polytunnel to estimate the daily risk of mildew and botrytis infection as well as a demonstration of the prototype “AI-based NKP sensor” that utilises a form of artificial intelligence called “fuzzy logic” to estimate coir NPK availabilities in real time so that we can target fertiliser applications more effectively.

NIAB EMR Presents...  Phytophthora begins to infect raspberry crops first through the roots, stunting plant growth, delaying fruit set and ultimately causing plant death. Phytophthora infections in raspberry crops have led to 70% of U.K. growers moving from field to pot cultivation, increasing labour and production costs. Join Eithne Brown, a Harper Adams University PhD candidate based at NIAB-EMR in the Raspberry Root- Rots. This webinar will investigate the incidence and effect of Phytophthora root-rot on UK raspberry crops.

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NIAB EMR Presents... Many beneficial insects, including fruit pollinators and natural enemies of fruit pests, rely on food and habitat other than the crop itself. For example parasitoids need pollen and nectar before finding a host in which to lay eggs, earwigs need shelter in the daytime, and pollinators require somewhere to nest and overwinter. Crops which lack these niches are likely to have low numbers of beneficial insects in and around the cropping area and, as a result, crops could be losing yield and be more reliant on plant protection products. In work funded by BBSRC, AHDB, Rivers Trust and the EU trials have been established at NIAB EMR and on farms which examine the impacts of wildflower resources on crop yield and pest control. We will present a small section of results from some of these trials to demonstrate the benefits of wild flowers to crops.

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NIAB EMR Presents... The quality of UK wines has dramatically increased this past decade, and further improvements in viticulture will enable the production of the finest quality, globally-recognised, unique wines and an increase in winemakers’ margins. Join Dr. Julien Lecourt to discuss several key topic including Resource Efficiency for Crop Production, Genetics & Crop Improvement and Pest & Pathogen Ecology for Sustainable Crop Management. You will also be taken on a virtual tour of the concept vineyard that Dr. Lecourt and his team oversee.

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As the transition period nears an end, the panel will discuss the latest situation for recruiting seasonal workers, implications for trade friction, and how horticultural businesses are preparing for 2021. Hear from industry experts and growers about what this means for the sector and how to navigate the months ahead.
 

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Tired of out-of-touch agtech? Meet Farmable, the Grower’s App, at Fruit Focus LIVE 2020. The Farmable app is designed for orchard growers and advisors with input from over 150 fruit growers and advisors from around the world.

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A review of the challenges faced by the sector in recruiting workers, cost impacts, minimising the risks of an outbreak on farm and what to do if an outbreak is identified. With speakers from across the sector, this session will provide valuable insight into the learnings from 2020.

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This session will cover the current energy market and price trends, and as the market moves through a complex transitional period. There will be a focus on how growers can introduce flexibility in their energy strategy to reduce costs and cut energy price risks. Particularly for cold storage and other energy intensive operations, the webinar will cover how implementing renewable generation (such as solar), batteries or other forms of energy storage (such as vehicle-to-grid), changing how and when electricity is used on site, time-of use-tariffs and the underlying supply contract can unlock the value in behind-the-meter energy opportunities.

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NIAB EMR Presents... This webinar will delve into the work of the NIAB EMR current crop breeding and genetics team who are principally focussed on commercial breeding programmes of Rosaceous (strawberry, raspberry, cherry, apple and pear). The expansion of current breeding programmes to include blackberry, blueberrry and lonicera is underway. Key areas of discussion will include flagship molecular-assisted breeding programmes in horticultural crops, speed breeding and genomic selection.

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A brief introduction to top sealing, with a focus on soft fruit, and a look at how new technologies can improve efficiency and optimise production.

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NIAB EMR Presents... Join the WET Centre Consortium partners as they give a brief update on their new findings. This session will include updates from WET Centre partners: Netafim, Delta-T, Stoller, AHDB & NIAB EMR. Delta-T will discuss monitoring the polytunnel environment in a way that gives more accuracy and precision. Stoller will cover ethylene management in top fruit. AHDB & NIAB EMR will talk about their involvement and management of the WET Centre.

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Ginman will discuss pollination and advise on the services that the Bee Farmers Association can provide including a discussion of the apprenticeship scheme in collaboration with the fruit farming industry.

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This webinar will take a closer look at a new biopesticides and the benefits that they can bring to your integrated pest management programme. We will look at the technical details behind how the active ingredient Bacillus amyloliquefaciens controls diseases and key tips for getting the best control to boost the overall efficacy of your crop protection programmes.

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