As pressures increase, resistance grows and traditional solutions are withdrawn, growers up and down the country are faced with challenge after challenge to their crop protection plans.

How do you protect your investment - your livelihood - in an ever changing world?

While there’s no single magic solution, there are a host of alternative options for growers, from natural plant protection products, to shifting management strategies, to new tank mixes and more. 

UPL is promoting biosolutions as a way to support growers through 2025 and beyond. 

And they’re doing it with one big challenge.

3 farms, 1 challenge - 25 for 25 

UPL has partnered with three farms around the country to address one simple question:

Can you replace 25% of your traditional crop protection products with natural biosolutions… without reducing yield?

That last part is key, of course. 

Working with growers on the ground, can UPL and their team of specialists help each farm swap 25% of their input for biosolution replacements, and still maintain the same yield outputs? 

Or better still, can they increase yield? 

Meet the farmers taking part:

• Will Jones at Albanwise Farming
• Ben Abell at Dyson Farming 
• Philip Vickers at Raby Estate

Reducing not replacing 

While the 25 for 25 initiative aims to swap 25% of traditional chemical inputs for natural alternatives, it’s not about replacing conventional chemistry altogether. 

“Our aim is to show growers across the country that natural plant productions are a viable, effective tool in every crop protection programme,” says Stuart Jackson, UPL’s head of technical services. 

“This isn’t about replacing conventional chemistry, it’s about supporting and complementing it, so we can reduce the amount of traditional chemicals we apply and help preserve its efficacy.”

For example, where wheat is grown as part of the 25 for 25 initiative, farmers might not be replacing Entargo (Boscalid) + PTZ or Ascra Xpro fungicides at T1. They may just be reducing the amount used, complementing and increasing their efficacy by adding in a bio-fungicide like THIOPRON.

IODUS and VITALROOT are two other biosolutions also likely to feature in UPL’s 25 for 25 initiative. 

Check back here for regular updates 

As the challenge begins and the first applications are sprayed across fields, be sure to check back here for regular updates. 

We’ll be following each of the four farms and tracking the challenge, sharing tips on what products they’re reducing and what other changes they’ve made on farm to hit that 25% target by the end of the year. 

And of course, we’ll be sharing all the key yield results. 

Watch this space.