June 15, 2010

Australian grain to be hit by locust

 

Landholders across southern Australia are preparing for one of the worst locust plagues in nearly 40 years.

Soaking rain across inland Australia has provided ideal conditions for the poisonous insect. Farmers who had their crops decimated by the locusts in April this year are now preparing for another generation, expected to inflict even worse damage.

One plague of locusts can lay 500 eggs and farmers in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia are waiting anxiously for those eggs to hatch.

Ian Hastings grows cereals, rapeseed and lupins on 4,000 hectares at Ouyen in north-west Victoria. Back in April a significant section of his crop was decimated by locusts. "We had sown our rapeseed, 425 hectares, quite early because we had good soil moisture and nice warmth," he said. "About three weeks later, that rapeseed was completely wiped out, so we then had to re-sow the entire 425 hectares with new seed."

For Hastings, the plague has come at a big cost. Hastings said his paddock changed overnight. "Our agronomist was checking it daily and he reported to us one day that it was still looking okay, there were certainly lots of locusts around but it was okay," he said. "And then in the afternoon of the third day he gave us a ring and said, 'it's just gone - overnight - and today it's just gone from when we looked at it yesterday'."

Hastings said, "the egg-laying in this part of the Mallee is the worst - I'm sure is the worst it has ever been."

But Chris Adriaansen, the director of the Australian Plague Locust Commission, said the worst is yet to come. He said depending on weather conditions, the next generation of locusts will start to hatch from early September, causing what scientists predict may be the worst locust plague in Australia since 1973.

"At this stage we're anticipating that there"ll be in the order of 2 million hectares plus that will require some level of treatment," he said. "There will need to be a lot of control undertaken by landholders as well.

"Landholders themselves will need to undertake their own crop and pasture protection measures so there will need to be a fair bit of control by landholders," Adriaansen said.

Last week the Victorian Government announced that it will provide AUD43 million (US$36.7 million) to fight the plague locust infestation, including a rebate for the purchase of a reasonable volume of chemicals to spray the hoppers.

But Mr Hastings said the chemical rebate will not work. "They're saying that they will recompense growers for the chemical that they use or insecticide that they use but our dilemma is that that then puts the onus back on us to ensure that we have supply," he said.