Australian fruit and vegetable growers will have access to a suite of new digital tools to help them manage the increasing challenge of pests and diseases, currently costing the sector around $3 billion each year.

A team from CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, has been working on a $12-million, five-year collaborative project for Hort Frontiers to develop the new Pest READI (regionally-enabled agroecological decision intelligence) tools which they shared for the first time at Hort Connections in Adelaide last month.

CSIRO project lead Dr Hazel Parry says farmers in regional Australia face a range of challenges when it comes to managing pest and disease outbreaks on their properties.

“We went directly to local communities to understand what changes in pest management they were thinking about and what they needed to make those changes,” Hazel says.

“Reduced reliance on chemicals and the reinforcement of beneficial insect populations that support healthy productive farming environments were top of mind,” she says.

The Pest READI digital toolkit, which directly responds to what growers says would help them make changes, allows growers to assess their farms and ensure they are fully prepared for pest and disease threats.

They include:

• The Pest READI IPM Module in Hort360 – a benchmarking tool growers can complete to determine how their Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices weigh up against other growers and develop action plans to improve.
• Pest READI Terrain – a tool to help growers and advisors undertake monitoring and surveillance in their farm landscape.

• Pest READI IPM Advisor – an AI chatbot designed to provide tailored pest management advice.
  
   

  

CSIRO’s Dr Tracey Steinrucken, who led stakeholder engagement on the project, says Pest READI saw researchers partner with farmers in the NSW Northern Rivers and industry representatives to co-design the tools.

“We were really focused on getting collective local knowledge and experience from landholders and other stakeholders to build digital tools which allow farmers to transform the way pests are prepared for and managed at the farm and regional levels,” Tracey adds.

“The Northern Rivers is home to a diverse mix of crops, farms and industries, providing the perfect context to build the toolkit which can be adapted to any horticulture area in Australia,” she says.

Project collaborator Growcom’s Scott Wallace says the Pest READI IPM Module allows growers to benchmark their IPM practices and is a valuable and practical tool for growers and agricultural advisors.

“It’s important management of pests and diseases is seen at the regional level, rather than individual property level, to understand where the most significant risks lie,” Scott explains.

“Sustainable integrated pest management starts with informed decisions – only using chemicals when strategically required and exploring other non-chemical options.”

Hazel says the team has been working with growers from a range of horticultural industries – including macadamia, avocado, berries, banana, coffee, and custard apple – many of whom face the same pest and disease challenges.

“We were excited to showcase the toolkit to a wider audience at Hort Connections and will now be looking for growers to test the new tools and provide feedback.”