The Australian government has announced A$5.8m in funding for two research projects led by Horticulture Innovation Australia (HIA).
The two projects, ‘Multi-scale monitoring tools for managing Australian tree crops – industry meets innovation’ and ‘Adaptive area-wide management of Queensland Fruit Fly: guidelines for efficient and effective pest suppression and stakeholder adoption’, are part of A$26.7m worth of research and development grants for Australian farmers announced by the government on 10 May.
One of the projects will look at managing tree crops, including improving grower returns, productivity and managing biosecurity for tree crops, particularly avocados macadamias and mangos, while the other will look into area-wide management of Queensland fruit fly.
“The tree crop project will deliver a farm-level decision support tool to assist growers with yield forecasting and optimisation, early detection of pest and disease outbreaks, support product traceability, and reduce input costs,” explained HIA CEO John Lloyd. “[Queensland fruit fly] is the major pest of Australian horticulture, resulting in a national annual loss of approximately A$100m. It is also a major barrier to accessing markets. This funding will help control one of the greatest threats to the Australian horticulture industry.”
A second round of funding for the Rural R&D for Profit Grants Programme will be announced mid-year, focusing on improving farm-gate returns and productivity.
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