Worcester researchers to look at wildflower benefits for vineyards

Professor Duncan Westbury is leading the three-year project

Researchers are to investigate whether wildflowers can be used to make wine-making more environmentally friendly.

Scientists from the University of Worcester and the Royal Agricultural University (RAU) will work on the project over the next three years.

They hope to find insecticide alternatives and will assess the benefits of planting wildflowers between the vines.

This may improve soil health and tackle pests that attach to the grapes.

They said their aim was to make grape production in the UK "more resilient and sustainable".

The university said similar studies were carried out elsewhere in the world, but in different landscapes and climates, with different pests and British growers needed research done in British conditions.

The researchers want to see what benefits rows of wildflowers could bring to vineyards

It estimated there were 3,800 hectares of vineyards in the UK that could directly benefit.

Wine production has increased rapidly in recent years it said and demand for UK wine was expected to rise, so the research was important if the industry was going to expand in an environmentally friendly way.

Prof Duncan Westbury, from RAU, said: "Grape growers need to future-proof production by not only having a greater reliance on alternative pest and disease management strategies, but also strategies to capture and store more carbon in the soil."