%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.
%A A Varah
%A K Ahodo
%A S Coutts
%A H Hicks
%A D Comont
%A L Crook
%A R Hull
%A P Neve
%A D Childs
%A P Freckleton
%A K Norris
%V 3
%J Nature Sustainability
%D 2020
%L discovery10086408
%P 63-71
%T The costs of human-induced evolution in an agricultural system
%O This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.