Rotations was one of the nine areas identified by the ARF technical directors' group for exploring potential collaborative R&D.

Crop-based sectors (including grassland) were selected for an exploratory meeting in May 2007 to review current research and scope future research for ARF support. Current active and recent research projects were collated as a starting point to focus the discussion and map out areas for potential collaborative activity.

Leading researchers were invited to present current work and to indicate areas worthy of further research.Technical Managers from each levy board then produced a list of potential research topics.

Many of the areas identified were already the subject of current research efforts (through individual levy bodies and other funders such as Defra). However, the exercise did highlight a need for individual sectors to maintain an awareness of others' activities and flag opportunities for collaboration to their counterparts in the relevant levy body.There were very few (only two) areas which could potentially result in collaborative projects.These were both soil borne diseases; Rhizoctonia and clubroot.The plan is to review Rhizoctonia work (BPC, HDC and Defra) to see if there are any aspects which could be developed collectively.The clubroot work (HDC and Defra) will be reviewed shortly. In the meantime HGCA has commissioned further research on this disease.

For other areas of current research such as Verticillium management (horticulture and potatoes), Sclerotinia (legumes and horticulture) and slug control (arable, horticulture and potatoes) the agreed action was for the relevant managers to keep the others informed of progress and to link up to explore further opportunities when the current work reaches completion.

HDC and BPC are currently undertaking research to identify novel solutions to volunteer potato control in vegetable rotations. HDC include potatoes in its ongoing herbicide screening programme. Other areas were identified but individual levy bodies did not consider them suitable for collaboration.