Growers wanting to reduce agrichemicals in their crops and unsure where to start will learn more at a series of Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) events next month.
A $27 million, seven-year “A Lighter Touch” (ALT) programme set up in 2020 was co-funded by the government and industry to develop and promote arable and horticultural pest management options reducing the reliance on synthetic chemistry.
FAR senior cereals researcher Jo Drummond said increasing interest in the approach was being matched by an increase in tools for growers.
“Reducing inputs makes a lot of sense when grain prices have fallen and input prices are high,” she said in a statement. “ALT can be a way for growers to remain profitable when times are tight while also protecting chemistry and cultivars.”
FAR says agrichemicals remain critical to managing pests and diseases in arable-production systems.
However, the industry group accepts their use is being challenged by increasing consumer pressure and they are also being compromised by a build-up of pest and disease resistance with less new chemistry going on the market.
Ms Drummond said growers had regularly raised this at FAR events with sufficient interest for it now to become a standalone topic.
Mainly focused on cereals, it will also include partners from the processed and fresh vegetable sectors.
The series for ALT — a new approach to crop protection — begins in Timaru on August 6.
This will be followed with workshops at Ashburton on August 7, Gore on August 8, Hastings on August 13 and Bulls on August 14.
Providing advice will be visiting United Kingdom crop protection and integrated pest management expert Dr Aoife O’Driscoll, a senior specialist from the National Institute of Agricultural Botany.
She will be joined by a range of FAR and other speakers, with local growers at the Ashburton event outlining their own achievements on farms.
An integrated ALT programme includes a mix of cultural, chemical and biological controls.
Ms Drummond said shifts in sensitivity of key fungicide mode of action groups had meant that growers had to think carefully about how they used chemistry.
Fungicide applications still needed to hit key growth stages, but some were more important than others.
“Decisions on when and what to apply should balance seasonal risks with disease pressure and cultivar choice. When you get it right, you can achieve balance between disease control, profitability and productivity, with the added bonus of prolonging the active life of available chemistry.”
Sessions would assist growers to use cultivars, rotation, agrichemical programmes, biological products, crop monitoring and decision-support tools in an integrated way for wheat production.
There will also be questions provided to growers so they can ask agrichemical representatives about biological products, mode of action chemistry groups, and cultivar genetics and resistance.
Ms Drummond said one of the benefits of the programme was growers could cherry pick which parts of ALT they wanted to adopt.
“It doesn’t matter where you are on the spectrum of ‘A Lighter Touch’, whether you are jumping in boots and all or just dipping your toe in, there is something for you.”
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