Feasibility study into opportunities for high-technology horticulture production in urban environments
12 January 2022Identifying potential parasitoids of the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda, and the risk to Australian horticulture
20 January 2022
iMapPESTS was a national program of research, development and extension designed to put actionable information into the hands of Australia’s primary producers to enhance on-farm pest management decision-making. This project was a collaborative piece of work funded through the Australian Government’s Rural R&D for Profit initiative.
Over a six-year period (2017-2023), iMapPESTS laid the foundations for a national cross-industry surveillance system that can rapidly monitor and report the presence of airborne pests and diseases affecting major agricultural sectors across the country, including grains, cotton, sugar, horticulture, wine, forestry and emerging industries. This was achieved through a range of surveillance, diagnostics, and engagement and adoption activities.
Once established, the system could enhance pest management decision-making by providing timely information on high-priority, cross-sectoral pest and disease abundance and spread. Such information could be used by industry stakeholders to guide the direction or intensity of scouting efforts and pest control actions. The system could also facilitate a co-ordinated response to biosecurity efforts during exotic pest and disease incursions, including use in delimiting surveys and proof-of-freedom claims.
Project overview
The Rural Research and Development for Profit (RR&D4P) plant biosecurity research project commenced in November 2017. Project partners achieved $21 million for the cross-industry initiative, of which $6.8 million was dedicated to Horticulture Innovation Australia.
The iMapPESTS project was a collaboration of government, industry and science to a develop a mobile cross‐industry plant pest surveillance network, which provided actionable information to primary producers and government on endemic, established, trade sensitive or exotic pests.
The project’s key audiences were industries, growers and producers in the major cropping agricultural sectors of cotton, forest products, grain, horticulture, sugarcane, wine grape, and emerging plant crops, and included agricultural service professionals in the plant industries supply chain, agronomists, researchers and biosecurity personnel.
The project worked towards enhanced pest management, biosecurity and area freedom, where iMapPESTS aimed to validate a proof-of-concept surveillance system that can rapidly monitor and report the presence of high-priority pests and diseases.
Click here to download the iMapPESTS program factsheet
Project Partners
Hort Innovation was the RR&D4P grant lead and program manager; in partnership with the Industry Research and Development Corporations of AgriFutures Australia, Cotton Research & Development Corporation (CRDC), Forest & Wood Products Australia Limited (FWPA), Grains Research & Development Corporation (GRDC), Nursery & Garden Industry Australia Limited (NGIA), Sugar Research Australia Limited (SRA) and Wine Australia; in collaboration with Australian government departments and research groups of Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), AgriBio – Department of Economic Development Jobs Transport and Resources (DEDJTR), Department of Primary Industries & Regional Development, Western Australia (DPIRD), Plant Health Australia (PHA), South Australian Research & Development Institute (SARDI) and the international team at Plant & Food Research (PFR) [NZ], Burkard Scientific Limited [UK], and Rothamsted Research Limited [UK].
AUSVEG’s role
AUSVEG undertook three major work streams: information gathering, communication, and extension. In the first year of the project, AUSVEG collected information on priority pests across plant industries, which underpinned the surveillance initiative. Throughout the life of the project, AUSVEG was also tasked with communicating the project to relevant stakeholders. In the later stages of the project, AUSVEG extended the research to industry through training in the use of the surveillance system.
Over a five-year period (2017-2022), as the iMapPESTS engagement and adoption partner, AUSVEG established a broad extension network to raise awareness, build support and promote adoption of the program’s outputs and outcomes across each industry within the Australian Agricultural supply chain. A key objective of building a national network capability of field crop production industries was to enable growers and producers in the major cropping agricultural sectors of cotton, forest products, grain, horticulture, sugarcane, wine grape, and emerging plant crops, to work together for the resilience of key regional growing areas.
The project’s communications and extension strategy was based on the nature and lifecycle of the project, with the view of keeping stakeholders and interested parties adequately informed of the objectives, involved in activities, updated on the outcomes and benefits of the project, to support the collaboration and connection of all stakeholders.