The economic impact of fungicide resistance has been found to be the number one concern for growers when managing net blotch in barley from a survey conducted by the Centre for Crop and Disease Management (CCDM) but there are also social aspects to consider.

The study, conducted in 2020 by the GRDC and Curtin University co-funded CCDM involved interviewing 137 growers from the WA wheat belt. It has provided fresh insights into how growers view and deal with fungicide resistance  and has enabled CCDM to draw up a ‘roadmap’ to develop new ways to drive practice change.

Dr Toto Olita led the phone-survey study and explains it was carefully structured to capture both quantitative and qualitative information.

“Growers were asked about their perception of fungicide resistance and from this question three clear themes emerged- economic issues, loss of fungicide efficacy and the emotional impact,” Dr Olita says.

“The top issue influencing growers fungicide resistance management related to the economic impact of the problem. Most of the surveyed growers defined fungicide resistance  as something that would affect the sustainability of their agribusiness, using phrases like “it makes barley less economic to grow” and “it wastes your money.”

A more surprising result was defining fungicide resistance using emotions, such as frustrating, stressful and worrying, with one grower remarking, “Scary. Definitely a looming issue. We haven’t got it yet, but it is something that we are very worried about.

From the survey information, Dr Olita  also learned more about where growers were sourcing their fungicide management information.

“Advisors were the main source of information but field days also ranked very high, as at these events growers could see what is happening on the ground, social platforms also ranked highly with the younger growers.”

“This information helps us adapt and target messaging for different platforms,” Dr Olita says.

Survey results determined a grower on average will spend $30 per hectare on fungicide treatment. If fungicide resistance were to develop on their farm, growers were prepared to spend an extra $18 per hectare (on average) to stop fungicide resistance from developing or to minimise the impact. But in marginal rainfall areas, growers were only likely to spend an extra $10 per hectare to manage resistance problems, which means that fungicide resistance management practices need to be affordable for them to be adopted.

“These insights help us to design a roadmap to address fungicide resistance, taking into account both social and economic factors for growers,” Dr Olita says.

“This will empower growers to adopt practices that are cost-effective and sustainable.”

Figure 1 illustrates the barriers (red line) to fungicide resistance management change and the aspects that need to be improved (green line) to achieve practice change.

Figure 1: Roadmap to facilitate fungicide resistance management practice change

Source: CCDM

CCDM will be working with industry to promote profitability of the agribusiness while promoting adaptive capacity and a sustainable agri-food industry.

More information: Dr Toto Olita, Toto.olita@curtin.edu.au

Read also: Co-innovation to curb barley blotches and Net blotch fungicide resistance profiling enriches knowledge base.