TY  - JOUR
AV  - public
JF  - Nature Sustainability
EP  - 71
N1  - This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher?s terms and conditions.
ID  - discovery10086408
VL  - 3
A1  - Varah, A
A1  - Ahodo, K
A1  - Coutts, S
A1  - Hicks, H
A1  - Comont, D
A1  - Crook, L
A1  - Hull, R
A1  - Neve, P
A1  - Childs, D
A1  - Freckleton, P
A1  - Norris, K
Y1  - 2020/01//
N2  - 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.
TI  - The costs of human-induced evolution in an agricultural system
SP  - 63
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0450-8
ER  -