This volume of Aspects of Applied Biology reports papers from across the globe presented at the International Advances in Pesticide Application conference at Robinson College, Cambridge on 9-11 January 2008. It is pleasing to see the quality of the valuable research being done in a wide range of disciplines related to food production and pest control. Since our last conference in 2006 there has been a marked change in the global awareness of the fragile nature of food supply and demand. The last 20 years has seen declining worldwide cereal prices, and at times within the European Union, methods of food production which have been expensive to maintain and difficult to justify. Areas of land have been taken out of production, which has had benefits for the environment and biodiversity.

In 2006/07 a number of factors converged to have a dramatic effect on the supply of basic commodities such as maize and wheat. The effect of “El Niño” on the global climate gave rise to droughts in key grain producing areas such as Australia and Canada, whereas parts of Europe were flooded. The poor harvest coincided with rises in demand from countries such as China, and the move towards using cereals for the production of bioethanol.

Climate change has become a part of everyday life, and its effects on agriculture are probably already being seen. This is not only in terms of the effects of severe weather but also by enabling, what were thought of previously as alien, pests and diseases to become established, creating new threats to agricultural crops. As international agreements are set up in response to climate change and reduce the dependency on fossil fuels, land used for food production is likely to be used increasingly for biofuels. It would appear that experts in the field of pesticide application will continue to be in demand to ensure that food supply is maintained by maximising production through ever more sophisticated crop protection techniques.

Papers presented at this conference focus on a number of themes, but the need to safeguard human health and the environment is evident throughout. New technologies allow precise delivery of pesticides to the target, using advances in target recognition and GPS. Equipment and techniques developed for the delivery of synthetic pesticides have been modified for other uses, for example to deliver entomopathogenic bacteria and nematodes.

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2008  460 pp.