iMapPESTS - Sentinel Surveillance for Agriculture (Grower's Survey 1.1)
Introduction: Plant Pest and Disease Surveillance Project
HAVE YOUR SAY - about crops and related Pests and Diseases.
This introduction contains information on the iMapPESTS project and the need for a survey (what, why, who and when) along with short survey questions to help share local information with the national project.
(First two pages have project background notes and instructions, the survey begins on page three and the last page is your contact details).
We thank you for being involved in the Plant Pest and Disease Surveillance Project.
What will this survey be used for?
The survey results will inform your Industry RDC group regarding your pest and disease concerns. The data will help deliver a first-of-its-kind Biosecurity based surveillance program across various industries of Australian plant agriculture.
The project, named ‘iMapPESTS’ was funded to improve plant pest management through cross industry development of smart sensors, diagnostics and forecasting, to provide benefits to regions, growers and producers involved the major cropping agricultural sectors of cotton, forest products, grain, horticulture, sugarcane, wine grape, and emerging plant crops, and to assist agricultural service professionals in the plant industries supply chain, agronomists, researchers and biosecurity personnel.
Why is this survey important?
The survey is designed to ask local and regional growing information, specifically what pests and diseases affect field crops. The results of this will be matched with existing AUSPestCheck data and existing commodity information from growers and industry groups. Your answers to this survey will assist us to determine the most suitable locations for where and when this national project will place mobile surveillance unit.
The mobile surveillance units are called Sentinels, which will be built as the part of a federally funded project, to position temporary plant surveillance equipment, in growing locations all around Australia, to trap problematic regional airborne pests and disease spores. The project will focus on endemic and established pests (later on for exotic pests).
With the success of this project, industry will have a better understanding of current airborne pests and disease spores distribution and the early detection strategies. This will help the project to produce reports and alerts for growers in each region to assist with crop health management decision making. The type of information that can be used in sustainable farm management plans, activities to reduce chemical resistance and to assist with cost-effective crop production and promote the benefits of plant pest and disease surveillance.
