Summary

Following harvest, grains must be stored safely for prolonged periods to ensure market access throughout the year. As broadacre cropping expands in Northern Australia  on-farm storage is gaining momentum with a special emphasis on establishing and maintaining a functional grain supply chain to service domestic and international markets. However, the warm and humid climate of Northern Australia is conducive to pest attack and moisture build-up threatening the safe storage of grains.

The CRCNA’s situational analysis of broadacre cropping in Northern Australia concluded a lack of expertise and research data on pest spectrum, resistance profile and management practices further escalate this risk and constitute an impediment to long-term investment in this area. Therefore, it is imperative to identify grain storage challenges and deliver scientifically sound storage practices suitable for Northern Australia.

This industry driven research project aims to establish baseline data on stored grain insect pests and effective pest and resistance management practices that can effectively be used on farm.  These are:

1. establishing pest and resistance profile and explore the degree of pest movement within the local grain growing region
2. utilise this base data and evaluate the effectiveness of selective chemical control strategies that can potentially be used on farm and other stake holders
3. facilitate delivery and adoption of key findings to end-users through workshops and field day meetings in collaboration with GRDC/ CRCNA extension team.

Expected outcomes

The research will generate scientifically proven practical outputs on postharvest pest management for their implementation by growers and other stakeholders in Northern Australia and help towards a knowledge-based transitioning for safe storage of grain commodities.

This will help achieve storage integrity and maximise the profitability along the grain value chain in this region, ensuring that growers and other stakeholders can be “price makers’ and not “price takers”.