IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natsus/v3y2020i1d10.1038_s41893-019-0450-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The costs of human-induced evolution in an agricultural system

Author

Listed:
  • Alexa Varah

    (Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park)

  • Kwadjo Ahodo

    (Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park)

  • Shaun R. Coutts

    (University of Sheffield, Western Bank
    University of Lincoln)

  • Helen L. Hicks

    (University of Sheffield, Western Bank
    Nottingham Trent University, Brackenhurst Campus)

  • David Comont

    (Biointeractions and Crop Protection Department, Rothamsted Research, West Common)

  • Laura Crook

    (Biointeractions and Crop Protection Department, Rothamsted Research, West Common)

  • Richard Hull

    (Biointeractions and Crop Protection Department, Rothamsted Research, West Common)

  • Paul Neve

    (Biointeractions and Crop Protection Department, Rothamsted Research, West Common)

  • Dylan Z. Childs

    (University of Sheffield, Western Bank)

  • Robert P. Freckleton

    (University of Sheffield, Western Bank)

  • Ken Norris

    (Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park)

Abstract

Pesticides have underpinned significant improvements in global food security, albeit with associated environmental costs. Currently, the yield benefits of pesticides are threatened as overuse has led to wide-scale evolution of resistance. Despite this threat, there are no large-scale estimates of crop yield losses or economic costs due to resistance. Here, we combine national-scale density and resistance data for the weed Alopecurus myosuroides (black-grass) with crop yield maps and an economic model to estimate resistance impacts. We estimate that the annual cost of resistance in England is £0.4 billion in lost gross profit (2014 prices) and annual wheat yield loss due to resistance is 0.8 million tonnes. A total loss of herbicide control against black-grass would cost £1 billion and 3.4 million tonnes of lost wheat yield annually. Worldwide, there are 253 herbicide-resistant weeds, so the global impact of resistance could be enormous. Our research supports urgent national-scale planning to combat resistance and an incentive for increasing yields through food-production systems rather than herbicides.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexa Varah & Kwadjo Ahodo & Shaun R. Coutts & Helen L. Hicks & David Comont & Laura Crook & Richard Hull & Paul Neve & Dylan Z. Childs & Robert P. Freckleton & Ken Norris, 2020. "The costs of human-induced evolution in an agricultural system," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 3(1), pages 63-71, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natsus:v:3:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41893-019-0450-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41893-019-0450-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0450-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41893-019-0450-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liqiang Yang & Xiaotong He & Shaoguo Ru & Yongyu Zhang, 2024. "Herbicide leakage into seawater impacts primary productivity and zooplankton globally," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Harkness, Caroline & Areal, Francisco J. & Semenov, Mikhail A. & Senapati, Nimai & Shield, Ian F. & Bishop, Jacob, 2023. "Towards stability of food production and farm income in a variable climate," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PA).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natsus:v:3:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41893-019-0450-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.