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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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