New feature improves pest, disease reporting in Western Australia

Reporting of pests and diseases in the Western Australian grainbelt has become easier, with people now able to provide details of outbreaks online via the PestFax Map service.

The new online reporting capability is one of a host of features progressively being added to the interactive risk management tool which started operating last year.

PestFax Map was developed by the Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA and The University of WA (UWA), with funding from the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).

DAFWA senior researcher and map project leader Art Diggle said that previously people could report pest and disease incidences to the PestFax service only by phone or email to PestFax editors.

"Now industry representatives can also report outbreaks by clicking on the ‘PestFax report form’ tab next to the map, then clicking directly on the location of the incursion on the map, or entering coordinates of their location relative to a nearby town,” he said.

"Where required, PestFax editors will consult with the person who reported the outbreak to confirm the report’s legitimacy.

"Confirmed reports will be incorporated into the PestFax newsletter and PestFax Map, which can now be viewed in satellite or map form, and can show all instances of a pest or disease and show multiple pests and diseases for optional time periods of years, months, weeks or days.”

Dr Diggle said it was hoped the online reporting capability on PestFax Map would eventually lead to people being able to report outbreaks from smart phones, with the person’s identity and location automatically recorded.

In 2011, PestFax Map was used to generate 4111 pest and disease maps by 317 different users in WA.

"Of these, 1306 queries related to all crops, and where a crop was specified the most popular crop was wheat, followed by canola and barley,” Dr Diggle said.

"In the disorder category, 1255 queries specified all disorders, 1484 specified diseases, 1263 specified invertebrate pests, and 109 specified abiotic disorders (environmental factors such as frost).

"The individual disorders which generated the most queries were diamondback moth (in canola), followed by powdery mildew (primarily in barley), stem rust (wheat and barley), leaf rust (wheat and barley), cutworms (pasture, oats, wheat and barley), stripe rust (wheat), yellow spot (wheat) and septoria nodorum/tritici (wheat).”

The PestFax newsletter, which contains links to PestFax Map, is now providing a reporting service for the 2012 growing season.