Potatoes

Potatoes | Potato pest threats | Potato biosecurity areas

Farm biosecurity

The Potato Growers’ Biosecurity Manual is designed for use by potato growers and their staff, as well as contractors, researchers and consultants working in the industry. It outlines simple procedures that can be used to minimise the risk of introducing and spreading pests, diseases or weeds on your farm. By implementing the recommended measures in day-to-day operations, you will improve your farm’s biosecurity and that of your region, minimising crop losses and additional costs.

The risk is real

Potato growers face different types of biosecurity risks:

• Exotic pests and diseases – that are not in Australia yet.
• Regionalised pests and diseases – that are already in Australia but are restricted to particular regions or can be kept off your farm through biosecurity practices.

On-farm biosecurity practices like those in this manual will help to protect your property from biosecurity risks.

More information

To ensure your property has the best protection against the introduction and spread of new pests, identify the strengths and weaknesses of your biosecurity activities through some self-assessment questions in the Biosecurity checklist.

Once identified, a few simple, non-costly and practical procedures can be implemented to strengthen areas of greatest risk.

While changing everyday practices can take more effort in the short term, these will become second nature with time and are easier and cheaper than dealing with the introduction of a new pest.

The Pest Information Document Database on the Plant Health Australia website contains the pest-specific documents developed as part of industry biosecurity plans.

These documents provide background and emergency response information on a number of the high priority pests of Australia’s plant industries.

• Pest surveillance
• Reporting suspect pests