CropSafe is a critical tool in identifying potential exotic pests and disease threats to Victoria’s grains industry. Agriculture Victoria delivers the CropSafe program in collaboration with a number of major agribusiness companies. Together, this cluster incorporates approximately 80 per cent of Victoria’s agronomists. CropSafe has a network of over 200 experienced agronomists continually looking for new pests and diseases. This means Victorian farmers can be far more confident that their grain crops are free of exotic pests. The CropSafe program has streamlined sample receipt, analysis, reporting and record keeping.

The 2018 CropSafe general surveillance survey resulted in CropSafe agronomists reporting on just over 1.9 million hectares which is approximately half of the estimated 3.2 million hectares of grain crops in Victoria. Crops were inspected three to ten times (average five times) during the growing season, depending on the crop type and scouting program required for crop pest and disease management.

The CropSafe program maintains rigour through contained communication and a range of extension products. This ensures that the agronomists in the network and the wider industry understand the key pests and diseases that are of greatest risk to Victorian grain growers. Growers and agronomists can find the key 34 pests, diseases and parasitic weeds that are threats to the Victorian grains industry in this booklet. A link to the electronic version of the booklet can be found in the useful resources section.

For sampling material and instructions (including plastic specimen bags and plastic vials) or information on joining CropSafe, contact Luise Fanning on (03) 4344 3111 or [email protected].

The success of CropSafe was acknowledged with a National Biosecurity Award in March 2017.