Fungal plant diseases are responsible for around 10-20% of crop losses annually and an additional 10% loss post-harvest. In Australia losses to strawberry from grey mould and stem-end rot have been shown to be effectively controlled from 25-38% to 3-4% with the use of fungicides, potentially saving the sector ~$100million annually. However, the utility of these fungicides is gradually being eroded due to the rise in fungicide resistance.

Rapid and accurate diagnostics of fungicide resistance are required to enable early intervention necessary to minimise crop losses, ensure better stewardship of fungicides and reduce wasteful applications of ineffective fungicides that may lead to further resistance and greater risk to One Health systems. There is also a pressing need to generate accurate data on the outcomes of divergent management strategies for fungicide resistant pathogens in horticulture. These results also need to be integrated into easily accessible platforms for analysis to empower growers and agronomists with trusted data for integrated pest management decision making.

The project, led by Dr Joel Haywood, has the long-term goal of engaging wider range of berry industry partners to establish and invest in a multi-year project into how fungicide practices can be changed to reduce resistance and create better stewardship. The data that such a project would collect over several years could then be integrated into a suitable platform that can be used to inform future decision making, for integrated pest management.

Project lead

Curtin University

Partners

The University of Queensland (UQ)

Duration

Twelve months