Your Levy at Work

New project set to develop career pathways for Australia’s nursery industry

Valued at $2.44 billion in the 2018-19 Nursery Industry Statistics report, Australia’s nursery industry is thriving, contributing significantly to the nation’s economic, environmental, and social wellbeing.

But to keep this momentum going and to support further growth and innovation within the sector, the industry must focus on the development of one its most important resources – people.

A new 12-month project, ‘Developing Nursery Career Pathways’ (NY19006), led by RMCG Consulting Group and Greenlife Industry Australia (GIA), is seeking to better understand and boost career development within the nursery industry and other relevant sectors of horticulture.

August Pest of the Month: Pyriform scale

by Levy Communications • NGI Updates

Name: Pyriform scale (Protopulvinaria pyriformis)

First detected in Perth in 2015. This is the first case of a species of Protopulvinaria scale occurring in Australia. It is a serious threat to more than 100 species across 34 plant families. These include a number of important fruit crops and ornamental plants such as mango, avocado, citrus, banana, guava, passionfruit, pomegranate, papaya, eucalyptus, hibiscus, gardenia, ivy, myrtle, laurels, paperplant and frangipani.

NY17009 UPDATE – the value in Integrated Pest Management

by Levy Communications • NGI Updates

The levy-funded project ‘Improving pest management for the nursery industry’ (NY17009) is a two-year program aiming to provide production nurseries with a cost-benefit analysis on the implementation of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices and elements.

Since the project began in 2019, seven production nurseries across five states who specialise in different areas of plant production, have begun implementing key elements of a structured and rigorous Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program into their business.

Business benchmarking tool webinar: A practical demonstration

by Levy Communications • NGI Updates

Did you miss the online practical demonstration of the latest edition of the nursery business financial benchmarking tool?

The project team has made the webinar available online for any growers who missed the session. To watch the webinar, head to: youtube.com/watch?v=jLsESMDbXEo&feature=youtu.be

Conducted by Rebecca Moriarty and Jan Paul van Moort from ACIL Allen Consulting, this webinar engaged cross-industry representatives, sharing an overview of the latest Nursery Industry Statistics 2018-19 report, its key findings and how this data has been used to inform the tool.

The webinar explains how to navigate the tool, covering the basics on how to get started, through to how to input and interpret business data.

WEBINAR: Control, eradication and preparedness for exotic leafminers

by Levy Communications • NGI Updates

Production nurseries are encouraged to attend a webinar on exotic leafminers that will be held on Thursday, 16 July 2020, to provide growers with an update on incursion risk, impact, surveillance procedures and management options if incursion occurs.

This webinar forms part of the levy funded ‘Research, Development and Extension program for control, eradication and preparedness of vegetable leafminer’ (MT16004) project, which is led by cesar with support from project partners Plant Health Australia, the University of Melbourne, Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy (NAQS) and AUSVEG.

MT18005 UPDATE – Using next generation sequencing to provide plant industry quick-access to new plant genetic material

by Levy Communications • NGI Updates

A joint-levy funded project is facilitating faster and more accurate screening methods on imported nursery planting stock to allow for the introduction of new genetic material that will help maintain diversity in changing environmental conditions, shoring up the future sustainability of the nursery industry.

‘Improving plant industry access to new genetics through faster and more accurate diagnostics using next generation sequencing’ (MT18005) project, is seeking to improve plant industry access to new genetics by enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of virus detection at post-entry quarantine (PEQ) facilities.