Hort Innovation’s iMapPESTS project, supported by the Australian Government through the Rural R&D for Profit Program, is set to deliver six sentinel trials by the end of 2020. Each sentinel is equipped with monitoring equipment to collect important data that could identify and predict the presence of pests and pathogens that impact the agriculture sector.
Hort Innovation Research and Development Manager Jessica Holliday said, “The program aims to lay the foundations for a national surveillance system capable of rapidly monitoring and reporting the presence of airborne pests and diseases for multiple agricultural sectors, including viticulture, grains, cotton, sugar, horticulture and forestry.”