- The British Crop Production Council (BCPC) has expanded its online Knowledge Bank to include over 30 years of technical reports and information from the former Weed Research Organisation (WRO)
The BCPC Knowledge Bank, available at www.bcpc.org, offers free open access to information, reports and papers from BCPC conferences and symposia reports dating back to 1954, and now includes over 120 technical and annual reports from the WRO – available online for the first time since their original publication.
BCPC general manager Julian Westaway highlights how much of the information in the technical reports is still relevant today, as many of the herbicide products and active ingredients evaluated are still widely used around the world. “The work of the WRO, which closed in 1995, was world-leading in its time and remains a valuable industry resource. I can see this being a starting point for businesses and researchers looking for ‘new’ uses for ‘old’ herbicides as the reports include detailed, independent information on both crop selectivity and efficacy against major weeds.”
The digitisation project was arranged by BCPC with funding from Chadacre Agricultural Trust, Felix Cobbold Trust, Perry Foundation, Douglas Bomford Trust and The Morley Agricultural Foundation, and organised by the AgriFood Charities Partnership (AFCP).
The digital archive includes 111 WRO technical reports published between 1963 and 1995, ten WRO Annual/Biennial Reports covering the period 1960 to 1983, and the authoritative 296-page book ‘Wild-oats in World Agriculture’ written by WRO staff and published in 1976.
“Many of these reports present data from glasshouse evaluations on pre-emergence and post-emergence activity of individual herbicides and active ingredients on a wide range of temperate and tropical crops and weeds. But a range of other topics are also covered, for example aquatic weed control, weed surveys, methods for analysis of herbicides, methods for determining effects of herbicides on microorganisms, growing weeds from seeds for experimental purposes, amenity weed control, and effects of herbicides on field margin flora,” explains Mr Westaway.
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