Crop protection problems are tipped to become more frequent and severe as farming practices change, opportunistic cropping is adopted and high-risk crop rotations become more common.

Growers and the Federal Government, via the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), are therefore tackling the challenges through a new crop protection program.

The GRDC program aims to deliver cost-effective and environmentally sound solutions to potential weeds, diseases, invertebrate and vertebrate pests in Australian grain crops.

To achieve worthwhile results from crop protection strategies, the GRDC is working towards a collaborative approach between regions and states.

In WA, targeting Diamondback moth (DBM) remains a high priority for protecting canola.

The recurrence of this pest, particularly in the northern agricultural region, alerted the Western Australia Department of Agriculture to the pest’s threat to the viability of the state’s canola industry.

Some canola growers have lost up to 70 per cent of their crops over the past two seasons due to DBM and may have lost confidence in canola as a profitable cropping option.

To help restore some confidence, research is assessing DBM control options, developing an understanding of population dynamics to help predict outbreaks with the aim of developing sustainable integrated pest management to combat its destructive effects in the longer term. This work will be led by Kevin Walden, Department of Agriculture, Geraldton.

Existing DBM management strategies include regular crop monitoring with sweepnets for early detection and looking at the relative proportion of large to small grubs.

Spraying can reduce DBM numbers to less than 10 per cent, but they can return to the same level in two weeks. Heavy rainfall can reduce numbers by up to 90 per cent.

However, as canola crops have only taken off in WA in the last decade, mystery still surrounds DBM. Work in the current growing season contributes solutions to this mystery.

The GRDC will continue to fund research on such critical issues throughout 2002-03, with an anticipated $4 million invested in crop protection projects across the country.