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A Comprehensive Study of the Australian Commercial Insectary Industry and Its Implications for Augmentative Biological Control

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A Comprehensive Study of the Australian Commercial Insectary Industry and Its Implications for Augmentative Biological Control A Comprehensive Study of the Australian Commercial Insectary Industry and its Implications for Augmentative Biological Control Mahmuda Begum A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Agriculture and Environment The University of Sydney April 2016 Statement of originality I hereby declare that this thesis is the product of my own work and is an original work which has not been submitted either in full or in part for any other degree or diploma at The University of Sydney or any other educational institution. To the best of my knowledge it does not contain any materials previously published or written by another person, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Mahmuda Begum April 2016 ii Abstract The Australian commercial insectary industry produces biological control agents (predator, parasitoid and nematode BCAs) to control pests. The use of commercial BCAs in Australia is being hindered by a range of factors but to date no study has been done on the Australian insectary industry. This study constitutes the first report about this industry. This study reviews the literature on insectary industries, integrated pest management (IPM), augmentative biological control (ABC) and the commercial biological control agents (commercial BCAs) and their adoption by the growers in the global context with special emphasis on Australia. A mixed method design was used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. During 2011–2013 semi-structured interviews (27) were conducted to identify the perspectives of insectary owners (9), citrus pest management researchers (9) and citrus growers (9). A national survey of citrus growers (a case study) was also conducted. Following a Participatory Action Research (PAR) framework, research results were sent to the participants (who had been previously interviewed) to seek further input into the development of recommendations. The Australian insectary industry started with citrus pest management in the 1970s. Over 40 years the industry has expanded from one company and one commercial BCA to five companies and 36 commercial BCAs in 2014. This expansion was largely in response to one pest (two spotted spider mite) developing resistance to multiple insecticides in Australia. After this initial (1991–2001) expansion the industry has stopped growing. Currently, two insectaries produce most of the commercial BCAs. Most of the companies iii are poorly capitalised with estimated gross sales well below AUD$10 million for the 2010–2011 financial year. It is clear that this industry faces many barriers. The size of the domestic market for commercial BCAs is very small and there is no export market. The industry is primarily horticulture based in Australia. Only a few organic growers use commercial BCAs. The cost of establishing a new insectary is very high. The cost of developing a new commercial BCA is also very high and by itself this industry does not have the resources to do this. Biosecurity is an issue for export and import of commercial BCAs. The industry is dependent on long distance transport. It and its clients are both based in rural areas and Australia is a very large country. The citrus pest management researchers believed that different factors such as climate, regional impacts, market destination, selective insecticides, insecticide resistance, effectiveness of the commercial BCAs, crop types, different cropping systems, developmental time between the pests and beneficial insects and growers’ attitude are all important factors that influenced growers to adopt commercial BCAs. Citrus growers’ interviews and survey results showed that economic factors have a major impact on the commercial BCAs’ adoption by citrus growers. Large farm owners were more likely to add commercial BCAs into their IPM program because they have more employees and often use a consultant and received better profit than small farm owners. Growers pointed out that adoption of commercial BCA is complicated, information intensive and needs a consultant. The complexity of the adoption of commercial BCAs is the main reason that deterred small farm owners. Growers ruled out insecticide resistance iv and insecticide withdrawal as driving factors for the adoption of commercial BCAs. Growers did not receive any support from the government except information. The factors were identified by insectary owners, researchers and citrus growers that uncovered the fundamental barriers and drivers of this industry. They developed the joint construction of the critical components of the commercial BCA adoption system and the industry expansion. Patents (rearing methods and pest control techniques because free living organisms cannot be patented) are essential for expansion of the Australian insectary industry. In Australia, only nematode commercial BCAs are patent protected but the lack of patents for the remaining commercial BCAs makes this industry an unprotected business. The insectary owners keep their rearing methods secret and were cautious about training people, because of commercial confidentiality. Insectary owners believed that the patenting process is expensive and laborious and needs experience and time. This constrained commercialisation and integration of commercial BCAs into crop protection. The insectary owners need to change their attitude towards it, train up more people for technical support to growers and avoid direct competition. They can give or sell licenses to the secondary insectary companies. They need collaboration with other research organisations, within their own industry, and with different crop industries. Collaboration is also essential for the actual implementation of commercial BCAs. Survey results showed that small farm owners need technical support to incorporate commercial BCAs into their pest management program. This industry needs to develop technical support mobile phone apps and insect identification and monitoring ‘flash cards’(flash cards are photographic and descriptive of the various life stages and monitoring tips). They can give technical support through Skype (or equivalent app) and could use a ‘model grower’ v as an advertisement. More species of commercial BCAs are necessary to manage all of the pests in a particular crop, for instance citrus crops. This industry needs to focus on organic farmers and encourage their uptake of commercial BCAs. The Australasian Biological Control Association Inc. needs to join with other related associations to form a lobby group to convince government to support this industry. Like many European countries a capital grant from the government is required to build a hi-tech production facility, research support and/or tax incentives to growers that use IPM and commercial BCAs. It will help the massive expansion of this industry and without this support this industry cannot be expanded as it is expected. A wider education about IPM is required. Like the IFP (Integrated Fruit Production) logo in many European countries, the introduction of an IPM logo for fresh produce to promote fresh produces grown using IPM is needed. This will encourage consumers to ask supermarkets for products displaying appropriate labels or logo as well as inspire consumers to know more about IPM. This industry can establish or contact local fruit and vegetables shops to sell IPM produce and encourage them to play a video that will show fruit and vegetables grown using IPM. The insectary companies need to establish or contact retail agents in every state or cropping area to facilitate growers to gain easy access to the source of commercial BCAs. Pest management consultants and extension officers require some education about IPM or commercial BCAs because they are the agents of change for the growers’ attitude. The Australian insectary owners, policy makers, IPM researchers and practitioners need to take these recommendations into consideration to expand this industry. Several areas such as promotion of commercial BCAs, selective insecticide use in IPM, commercial BCA use in the organic cropping system, entomology skill shortage and protectiveness vi warrant further research to better understand the adoption of commercial BCAs. Further research on growers and consumer attitudes will help to implement commercial BCAs and enhance the expansion of the Australian commercial insectary industry. vii Acknowledgements It is a great pleasure to acknowledge so many people and organisations. This thesis would not have been possible without their encouragement and support during my PhD research. Firstly I would like to thank my principal supervisor Dr Sarah Mansfield for her continual guidance, encouragement, endless advice and lots of good ideas during this work. Thanks for spending her time and effort in reviewing this thesis. Thanks are also extended to my associate supervisor Dr Peter Ampt for providing a social research concept and invaluable suggestions throughout this study; also thanks for reviewing the various drafts of this thesis. I extend my sincere thanks to Dr Edith Lees for her encouragement, availability and invaluable suggestions during the writing of this thesis. Thanks are also extended for her time and effort to editing this thesis. My sincere thanks are extended to the Australian insectary owners, researchers and citrus growers who participated in this project. I truly could not have completed this thesis without their cooperation and participation in this research. Thanks are also extended to those pest
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