Scientists, experts and speakers talk about their work in the fight against Fall armyworm. Video by Alison Paterson.
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00:00 Hi, my name is Alison McCarthy. I'm here at the Fall Armyworm RD&E Symposium and it's exciting to be here.
00:07 I'm here to talk about some of the research I've been doing in new technology developments to help monitor Fall Armyworm.
00:13 This new technology could potentially really reduce the labour that's involved in scouting for Fall Armyworm.
00:22 We're developing new approaches using UAVs and automated analysis to be able to track where infestations are,
00:29 when the Fall Armyworm is still in early stages.
00:33 So this can help us learn more about where infestations occur in the field and that can lead to improved management.
00:41 I'm also here talking about other technology we're looking at in helping to monitor natural enemy populations within fields as well.
00:49 So then this can help to know if the Fall Armyworm populations could be controlled by these natural enemies.
00:57 So it's great to share our research here, there's a whole lot of interesting research happening and thank you.
01:03 I'm Dr Greg Chandler, Head of Biosecurity R&D at Hort Innovation.
01:07 I've been involved with Fall Armyworm since it arrived in Australia in late 2019.
01:12 And when I joined Hort Innovation we were able to leverage our great collaborations through the Plant Biosecurity Research Initiative
01:19 to get all of the plant-based research and development corporations together,
01:23 divide and conquer the work and get some initial information out to growers.
01:28 Since then Hort Innovation has invested more than $13 million in various research programs,
01:34 including pheromones, beneficial insects and so on moving forward,
01:38 with a goal to put more tools in the toolbox for growers.
01:42 There's no silver bullet, we need lots of tools for different regions to get to.
01:47 The other thing that we're moving more into is helping growers respond and recover in terms of biosecurity incursions.
01:54 This is something we have not done much of in the past and we really need to be able to help growers recover,
02:00 get back to business and keep Australia growing.
02:03 Hi, I'm Dr Heidi Parse, I'm a Senior Scientist with the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries
02:10 and I led the organising committee for the National Fall Armyworm RD&E Symposium,
02:16 which we've been running over the last two days at Ecosciences Precinct in Brisbane.
02:21 It's been a fantastic opportunity to bring our industry, researchers, funders together from across industries
02:28 and across Australia to come together and talk about how we can address the fall armyworm challenge.
02:36 Hi, I'm Mark Eakman of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.
02:39 I'm a Director of Farming Systems Research.
02:42 We've just wrapped up today's symposium on fall armyworm where we've brought together a whole range of RDCs,
02:48 growers and researchers to look at how we can develop some collaborative approaches for addressing that issue
02:54 that a lot of the farmers out there are actually experiencing now.
02:57 While we've learned a lot over the last four years, there's a lot more still to be done,
03:01 but I'm pretty buoyant about the fact that everyone in the room understands the issue and are putting their minds to it to solve it.