iMapPESTS
iMapPESTS: Sentinel Surveillance for Agriculture. A project to improve plant pest management through cross industry deployment of smart sensors, diagnostics and forecasting.
Project overview
The Rural Research and Development for Profit (RR&D4P) plant biosecurity research project commenced in November 2017. Project partners achieved $21 million for the cross-industry initiative, of which $6.8 million was dedicated to Horticulture Innovation Australia.
The iMapPESTS project is a collaboration of government, industry and science to a develop a mobile cross‐industry plant pest surveillance network, which will provide actionable information to primary producers and government on endemic, established, trade sensitive or exotic pests.
The project’s key audience is industries, growers and producers in the major cropping agricultural sectors of cotton, forest products, grain, horticulture, sugarcane, wine grape, and emerging plant crops, and includes agricultural service professionals in the plant industries supply chain, agronomists, researchers and biosecurity personnel.
The project will work towards an enhanced pest management, biosecurity and area freedom, where iMapPESTS aims to validate a proof-of-concept surveillance system that can rapidly monitor and report the presence of high-priority pests and diseases.
Project Partners
Hort Innovation is the RR&D4P grant lead and program manager; in partnership with the Industry Research and Development Corporations of AgriFutures Australia, Cotton Research & Development Corporation (CRDC), Forest & Wood Products Australia Limited (FWPA), Grains Research & Development Corporation (GRDC), Nursery & Garden Industry Australia Limited (NGIA), Sugar Research Australia Limited (SRA) and Wine Australia; in collaboration with Australian government departments and research groups of Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), AgriBio – Department of Economic Development Jobs Transport and Resources (DEDJTR), Department of Primary Industries & Regional Development, Western Australia (DPIRD), Plant Health Australia (PHA), South Australian Research & Development Institute (SARDI) and the international team at Plant & Food Research (PFR) [NZ], Burkard Scientific Limited [UK], and Rothamsted Research Limited [UK].
