%0 Journal Article
%A Varah, A
%A Ahodo, K
%A Coutts, S
%A Hicks, H
%A Comont, D
%A Crook, L
%A Hull, R
%A Neve, P
%A Childs, D
%A Freckleton, P
%A Norris, K
%D 2020
%F discovery:10086408
%J Nature Sustainability
%P 63-71
%T The costs of human-induced evolution in an agricultural system
%U https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10086408/
%V 3
%X 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.
%Z This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.