session 5: grains surveillance strategy & chemical supply

biosecurity built on science

Grains Surveillance & ChemicaI Supply

Nicholas Woods

Program Manager, Plant Health Australia

Plant Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre


What is the research addressing?

Assoc. Prof Samantha Low-Choy


Australia’s plant production sector, including agriculture and forestry, is worth over $29 billion annually - exceeds that for total livestock production

Some 40 commodity groups have identified 360 HPP and some 4000 other potential pests of significance.

Some 50 potential incursions are reported each year

The Australian pesticide supply chain delivers some 6000 products to market and was worth almost $2.2 billion in 2014/15

There have been documented cases when a sudden increase in demand for a specific pesticide has meant that the supply chain has not been able to fully meet product demand – Why? – What can be done?

What is the point?


Australia’s plant production sector

Grain Growers and Producers

Pesticide Resellers

Manufacturers and Registrants

Agronomists

Surveillance Agencies, (government & industry)

General Community

Stakeholders – Who will directly Benefit?


Identified pesticide supply chain issues ranked by importance

Rank Issue

1 Global supply chain issues2 Impact of weather & climate3 Availability of real time pest surveillance information4 Access to crop area statistics5 Stakeholder storage capacity limitations6 Commodity price (pesticides)7 Lack of transport capacity and infrastructure8 Lack of registered active ingredients or products9 Difficulty in obtaining registration of products through minor

use permits


Surveillance Enhance pest activity monitoring & forecasting though improved surveillance Develop platforms that can integrate existing pest surveillance databases into

one place Pest management surveillance tools that can be integrated with other sources

of crop production information. Develop Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that facilitate integration

into big data systems Improve product demand forecasting. Provide the market with better

information (crop area, pest pressures, etc.) to facilitate decision Provide data on crop area statistics and pest pressure to enable baselines for

chemical usage to be determined at a national level. Facilitate a national and global system of plant pest alerts.

Mitigation options to enhance supply chain security


Storage

Assist growers with on-site/on-farm temporary storage to reduce the reliance on reseller storage infrastructure

Provide relief from some dangerous goods/poisons storage regulations for key specific pesticides

Share risk - increase opportunities to hold inventory throughout the supply chain.

Hold a percentage of key active ingredient each year in contingency stock.



Government Assistance

Provide incentives for new and minor use product registration

Develop government incentives to improve food security throughout the supply chain

Provide producer tax incentives for chemical inventory and storage to manage business risk

Create tax incentives for commercialisation of new/novel active ingredients.

Provide incentives for the local manufacturing of active ingredients



Communication & Training Exercises Facilitate better communication of information up and down the supply

chain

Undertake simulation exercises. Identify and simulate incursion of exotic pests and the national management of key endemic pestseterminethresholds and trigger points for stimulating increase in product supply.

Estimate product demands in cases of modelled pest outbreak and spread.

Increase data collection and improve sharing of crop area, pesticide stock, weather and climate information



Proposed Framework

Key Elements

Data Collection and Distribution

Stakeholder Interaction & Decision Making

Pesticide Information & Coordination Working Group (PICWG)


Proposed Framework

Data Collection & Distribution Rapid assessment of pest and crop status (e.g. planting statistics)

Integration of plant industry surveillance data

Automatic collation of pest surveillance data from multiple sources & stakeholders

The creation of knowledge - automatic alerts of pest spread and movement

Pest situational awareness for grains industries

National coordination and reporting of surveillance data


Proposed Framework

Stakeholder Interaction & Decision Making (PICWG) Provide a forum to engage with and share pest status information between key stakeholders Facilitate access to and contributions to a national plant pest surveillance system Facilitate the provision of real time national pest alerts that would could support pre-emptive

provisioning of pesticides Develop strategies to assist guide and support pesticide supply chain stakeholders in the

event of an imminent or current pest incursion Contribute to simulation exercises involving hypothetical pest incursions including

opportunities to test processes and timelines associated with meeting spikes in product demand

Review historical cases where pesticide shortages have occurred and provide recommendations and conclusions to supply chain participants

Collate key statistical data for the benefit of all stakeholders e.g. Crop estimates, endemic pest pressure, modelling forecasts


e.g. spore traps,in-field LAMP technology


The pesticide supply chain functions well in Australia - it delivers some 6000 products to market worth almost $2.2 billion in 2014/15

There have been documented cases where there has been a shortage of certain pesticide products as a result of pest behaviour, climate and supply chain logistics.

In some circumstances some agricultural sectors have been disadvantaged by the flow of existing pesticide stocks into new or priority markets.

The Australian pesticide supply chain can be described as “elastic” with large differences in supply times required depending upon a stakeholders position in the supply network.

A range of issues were identified that can impact on the robustness of the supply chain and the availability of registered products at the farm gate.

Summary


Pesticide manufacturers, registrants, transport networks and growers are all key participants in the Australian plant biosecurity system.

A framework is proposed where enhanced information on pest status and behaviour could be communicated more effectively to supply chain participants

A framework is proposed that could see the formation of a pesticide information and coordination working group (PICWG) to provide a forum to engage with and share pest status information between key stakeholders, and facilitate access to national plant pest surveillance and other technical information.

Summary


AUSPestCheck, is an innovative and advanced system for providing stakeholders a real time image of national plant pest status. Pest data can be provided into the system by all stakeholders, integrated and then provided back to key supply chain participants to assist planning and the allocation of resources including the manufacture, registration and supply of pesticides.

It is proposed that the framework would take advantage of AUSPestCheck along with formation of the PICWG to create a data rich environment for key supply chain decision makers.

With an enhanced provision of pest status information, the impact of factors that reduce the availability of pesticide products would be reduced.

The Future


For more information, please email [email protected]

Thank You!to all supply chain stakeholders

who actively contributed to this project

mailto:[email protected]

session 5: grains surveillance strategy & chemical supply

Science