A new survey of pest controls on Australian farms has revealed that farmers are spending “significant amounts of time and money” battling pests and weeds in their crops.
Conducted by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), the Pest Animal and Weed Management Survey 2016-2019: Land Manager Survey Results shows clearly that land management in Australia is a continuing job.
Acting Executive Director of ABARES, Jared Greenville said the Bureau surveyed 6,470 farmers in 2016 and 8,059 in 2019.
“The biggest change we saw was a 41 per cent increase between 2016 and 2019 in farmers reporting crop loss, degradation or loss of value from pests, particularly insects,” Dr Greenville said.
“The impact of pest animals, particularly invertebrates, has increased between surveys, even considering the vastly different weather patterns between 2016 and 2019.”
He said the proportion of land managers reporting expenditure on managing pests and weeds went down between 2016 and 2019, and the average amount farmers spent on pest and weed management nearly halved from $20,405 in 2016 to $11,576 in 2019.
“Widespread drought in 2019 is likely to be a factor in the reduced spend on weed management,” Dr Greenville said.
“We do have to take into account the fact that 2016 had substantially high rainfall, while 2019 was a drought year,” he said.
“These factors affect the impact, numbers and distribution of pest animals and weeds.”
