The Current and Potential Costs from Diseases of Oilseed Crops in Australia

The current loss from diseases in the Australian oilseed industry averages $137 million per year, or 27.6 per cent of the gross value of oilseed production. These losses are due to diseases caused by fungi, nematodes, bacteria, viruses and phytoplasmas. Losses would be far higher without the current controls, for example the use of resistant varieties, rotation, paddock management and the use of pesticides. The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) is supporting much of the research and development of these disease controls.

The allocation of resources for the control of oilseed crop diseases, both at the grower level when deciding whether to control a particular disease and at the national level when allocating funds for research and development, depends on an assessment of the losses caused by these diseases.

The oilseed crops included in this study were canola, soybeans and sunflowers. This report focuses on the crops grown in the GRDC production regions. Where production occurs outside these regions, an allocation has been made to an adjoining region. In other cases, no information was available and the disease losses to those crops outside the GRDC production regions were not assessed.

Region South, West, National, North

• 6.18 mb The Current and Potential Costs from Diseases of Oilseed Crops in Australia The Current and Potential Costs from Diseases of Oilseed Crops in Australia. The current loss from diseases in the Australian oilseed industry averages $137 million per year, or 27.6 per cent of the gross value of oilseed production. These losses are due to diseases caused by fungi, nematodes, bacteria, viruses and phytoplasmas. Losses would be far higher without the current controls, for example the use of resistant varieties, rotation, paddock management and the use of pesticides. The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) is supporting much of the research and development of these disease controls.