New research launches to advance CSFB control
14th October 2025
CSFB Research+ has been launched to evaluate the field performance of novel control products, improve guidance on cultural control measures, fine-tune understanding of cabbage stem flea beetle (CSFB) development, generate data on natural enemies and prime innovation in CSFB management.
AHDB explained that the CSFB Research+ represents its largest single investment in CSFB research, with a total project value nudging £750,000. A third of this investment is from cash and in-kind contributions from an extensive network of project partners.
Set to run for nearly five years, the work builds on a long-term series of AHDB- and Defra-funded projects that have dramatically improved understanding of the pest’s life cycle, crop risk factors and effective cultural control strategies. It also underpinned the release of a top 10 list of CSFB management strategies earlier this year.
Sacha White, AHDB lead crop protection scientist, said: “Faced with a lack of chemistry and insecticide resistance challenges, confidence and commitment to OSR has waned, with the UK shifting from a net exporter to a net importer in recent years.
“This new research partnership project brings together passionate and knowledgeable people from across the industry – spanning farmer cooperatives, input specialists, grain merchants, food producers and applied researchers – to co-design activity that puts CSFB control firmly back into the hands of farmers.”
About the research
Featuring numerous field trials and assessments, the research will:
- Examine the field performance of novel CSFB control products, such as novel insecticides/seed treatments, botanical biopesticides, entomopathogenic nematodes and synergists.
- Extend the availability of cultural control methods, including the use of OSR stubble cultivation to disrupt soil-dwelling CSFB pupae and brassicas in cover crops to lure beetles away from OSR cash crops.
- Improve understanding of CSFB traits to target cultural, biological and chemical control, including studying how environmental conditions influence CSFB development and migration.
- Study the two main parasitoids of CSFB: Microctonus brassicae andTersilochus microgaster (with a focus on the former), including how to encourage them
- Work in partnership to co-design activities that target research and knowledge exchange, create spaces for innovation and maximise value to levy payers.
A wide range of communication channels will be used to promote results to levy payers throughout the project. Project activity will be badged under the CSFB Research+ banner to maximise visibility and to help put CSFB knowledge into practice, AHDB said.
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