The Norwich-based British Beet Research Organisation (BBRO) held a series of in-field briefings to update farmers on aphid threats and available insecticide programmes, as well as introducing a new project to identify the carriers of seedling diseases.

In a trials field at Morley Farms near Wymondham, they were told that although aphid populations were hit by the cold winter weather, those that have survived have entered East Anglia's sugar beet crop earlier than expected - potentially carrying the threat of devastating plant diseases such as

© Eastern Daily Press