Western Australia - R&D preventing big oilseed, pulse losses

Diseases cost Western Australia’s oilseed industry $90 million annually and the state’s pulse industry $23 million per year, but the impact would be much worse if current controls were not in place, new reports reveal.

The national disease costs are $137 million for the oilseed industry, in which canola is by far the biggest crop, and $74 million for pulses.

"Reports commissioned by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) have found that losses would be much higher without the disease control measures used by growers,” GRDC plant health senior manager Rohan Rainbow said.

"These include the use of resistant varieties, rotation, paddock management and the use of pesticides.

"The reports show that one single disease – blackleg in canola – has the potential to cause national losses of $331 million – but the actual cost is much reduced at $77 million by using current controls.”

Dr Rainbow said the figures in the reports reflected the achievements made in researching, developing and implementing disease controls in the Australian pulse and oilseed industries.

"For example, disease research and development (R&D) is estimated to have benefited the lupin industry by $78 million annually by managing the impact of brown leaf spot alone,” he said.

"This figure is attributed to breeding improvements worth $4.1 million for the control of brown leaf spot; cultural controls (farm systems) providing benefits worth $50.5 million; and pesticides worth $23.4 million in controlling the disease.”

The GRDC funds much of Australia’s research into diseases and the development of control measures.

It commissioned the reports, authored by Gordon Murray and John Brennan, to assist in the allocation of resources for disease control in pulse and oilseed crops.

The oilseed and pulse reports are the first detailed studies on Australian disease losses for these crop types.

They follow similar reports released in recent years revealing the economic impacts of wheat and barley diseases.

Dr Rainbow said that for the five years ending 2008-09, the average gross value of national oilseed production was $552 million per year from an average area of 1.3 million hectares. The western region’s average planting during that period was 505,000ha per year, valued at $234 million.

For the five years ending 2008-09, the average gross value of Australian pulse production was $503 million per year from an average area of 1.5 million hectares. Production in the western region was 420,000ha annually, worth $103 million.

Dr Rainbow said diseases caused by fungi, nematodes, bacteria, viruses and phytoplasmas caused annual losses of $137 million to the Australian oilseed industry, equating to 27.6 per cent of the gross value of production.

"Within the oilseed industry, canola incurs the highest losses of $130.5 million, equating to 28.3 per cent of crop value,” he said.

The estimated average annual loss of $74 million caused by pulse diseases to the Australian pulse industry equates to 14.8 per cent of the gross value of production.

"Within crops, field peas have the highest losses at 32 per cent of the crop value, followed by peanuts (28 per cent), chickpeas (16 per cent), narrowleaf lupins (14 per cent) and faba beans (11 per cent),” Dr Rainbow said.