However, Simplot NSW agricultural manager Evan Brown had the most descriptive analogy of FAW’s destructive path: ″It is like the Cookie Monster.″
Its fondness for sweetcorn in particular has seen Simplot – an agricultural and food manufacturing business – move production from Bundaberg, Queensland, to New South Wales. It has developed an integrated pest management strategy for the company’s own farms and its 30 contract growers.
About 300 kilometres inland from Bundaberg, Theodore-based cotton and grain consultant Damian Erbacher also spoke of changing tactics in response to FAW. Maize plantings have moved from February to July: ″My biggest fear is that it will adapt to cold conditions,″ he told the symposium.
The face-to-face forum was held to build cross-collaboration between industry, government, researchers and funding bodies. It aimed to share learnings and identify priorities.
Since it was first detected in northern Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, FAW has spread swiftly. It is now in Victoria and a scientist at AgResearch NZ, Scott Hardwick, also confirmed its presence in New Zealand.
Globally, it is considered the plant world’s ‘foot and mouth disease’, said biosecurity specialist Chris Dale from the Federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Understanding the effects of FAW, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) took the unprecedented step of developing a global action for the pest in 2020.
Since then, global action technical working groups have been established.
