Senior Land Services Officer
Local Land Services, Greater Sydney

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Sylvia Jelinek is a Senior Land Services Officer with Greater Sydney Local Land Services.  Her background is in vegetable extension, previously in integrated pest management (IPM) and currently employed as the VegNET industry development officer for NSW.  Previous roles include working for NSW DPI under the biosecurity banner in citrus diagnostics and tissue culture for the Auscitrus indexing program. The biosecurity focus of the VegNET role is educating and implementing best farm management practices for vegetable growers in minimising biosecurity risks at the farm gate.

Areas of particular interest are in teaching vegetable farmers about keeping their farms clean, recognising pests and diseases and knowing and reporting unusual or exotic pests on the their farms.  Sylvia is passionate about increasing uptake of IPM to improve food safety, environmental impacts for the greater good of the community and to reduce incidences of chemical resistance in insects, weeds and diseases.  In addition, extension of Hort Innovations vegetable levy funded R&D project outcomes and outputs.

Sylvia works closely with officers in other Local Land Services regions as well as NWS DPI project staff conducting surveillance in vegetables along with stakeholders throughout NSW.