Many wheat diseases including stripe rust and fusarium head blight have caused the most Victorian crop damage in the last year, recent data from Agriculture Victoria CropSafe annual report shows.
Disease pressure was also high in pulses during the 2022 spring season with Botrytis spp. and Sclerotinia reported to be present with some severe infections resulting in total crop failure.
Exotic plant pests and diseases pose a significant threat to Victoria's agriculture industry, especially our cropping sector.
With international travel reaching pre-COVID-19 levels, and the increasing movement of plant materials and farm products throughout the state, the risk of incursions of plant pests and disease is high.
Agriculture Victoria grain services program manager Jo Cameron said the CropSafe Surveillance Program delivered a reassurance to the Victorian grains industry by increasing the monitoring, reporting and identification of plant pests and disease.
"The CropSafe network covers 85 per cent of grains agronomists within Victoria, with more than 1.7 million hectares, or 22,500 paddocks surveyed during 2022," Ms Cameron said.
"This area of research and identification ensures 14 high priority pests and diseases, including federal and state identified exotic pests, are reported."
The 2022 CropSafe report, outlined 68 crop samples were submitted during 2022 from across Victoria, with the majority delivered from the Wimmera and Mallee regions.
This number was lower than the 2021 survey year, and lower than the average amount of samples seen, which is generally over 100 per year.
Wheat accounted for just over 50 per cent of samples submitted, while pulses made up almost 30 per cent of samples.
The sample distribution was dominated by the Wimmera region, submitting 54 per cent of samples.
"Samples were from a range of crop types including wheat, lentil, barley, faba bean, lupins, canola, vetch and chickpea," she said.
"The report found that all Victorian lupin samples submitted to CropSafe during 2022 were negative for anthracnose, which is a disease of great concern to the state."
Botrytis grey mould and ascochyta blight pod infections in pulses were reported to be less severe but the report said "isolated cases of high seed infection levels may cause issues in 2023".
Ms Cameron said endemic diseases accounted for 38 per cent of the samples submitted, with the rest of the samples mostly affected by physiological or environmental conditions.
