The biosecurity system and its implementation in Australia at all levels is critical to protecting our primary industries and environment from the world’s most invasive and devastating pest and disease threats. It is key to supporting international market access for Australian agricultural products and safeguarding regional and rural economies and communities. On-farm biosecurity is a vital part of the system based on shared responsibility in our national and state biosecurity. It reflects practices designed to protect a property from the entry and spread of exotic and endemic pests. However, barriers remain to the adoption of effective on-farm biosecurity practices e.g. pest pathway control, monitoring and record keeping; there also is a barrier to reporting potential incursions.
To better understand the value placed on these practices by farmers, La Trobe University in partnership with RM Consulting Group have commenced a levy funded project to substantiate the costs and benefits of on-farm biosecurity practice adoption in vegetable and melon production.
The project has appointed a PhD student to lead the work with Joseph Sithole having just commenced his studies on the project. Joseph has extensive experience in dealing with farms implementing measures to manage pests and diseases. Previously, Joseph worked with banana farmers in Southern Africa. Prior to joining the banana farming community, he worked for Afrikelp (Seaweed company) as a Research Agronomist for many years. Joseph has passion in agriculture, and in this project he is excited to look into farming enterprises with business lenses. He holds an MSc (Agric) in Horticulture and BSc in Crop Science from South Africa and Zimbabwe respectively. He will work alongside industry, using his analytical skills and understanding of production systems to better understand the opportunities and challenges of implementing on-farm biosecurity measures. Joseph will be based at La Trobe’s Albury/Wodonga campus.
The outcome of this project will be provided to industry, growers and extension workers with robust economic information and tools to evaluate the cost/benefit of adoption of biosecurity practices on individual vegetable and melon farms. A key focus is to support the increased adoption of these practices and reduce the threat of endemic and exotic pests in the vegetable and melon industry. This will ultimately help to reduce the need for pesticides, improve compliance with quality assurance programs and market access requirements, and support long-term profitability for growers.
This project is a partnership between the La Trobe School of Business and the School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment at La Trobe University and RMCG. It is funded by Hort Innovation through the vegetable and melon industry levy.
More Information:
Dr Tim Clune
Senior Lecturer – Management & Marketing, La Trobe Business School
T: (02) 6024 9853
This project is funded by Hort Innovation using the vegetable and melon research and development levies and contributions from the Australian Government.
