Producers from as far as Bowen gathered in Mareeba on August 19 to explore Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies at Gulf Savannah NRM’s third Climate-Smart Agriculture workshop this year.
The session boasted key insights and innovation from industry specialists, including IPM pioneer and Bugs for Bugs founder Dan Papacek.
‘We all kind of acknowledge that pesticides are a bit like medicines in modern society: they’re valuable tools but they’re used way too much, and often indiscriminately,’ Mr Papacek said.
‘One of the important things is to shift away from aggressive agriculture into encouraging more biodiversity, without losing sight of the fact that obviously we need to have viable and profitable farms,’ he said.Â
To illustrate a real-world example of this shift, the workshop also featured a tour of the banana-spotting bug trap trial site on Jennings Farm, where attendees saw the technology in action and discussed its capacity to reduce reliance on pesticides.
By trialing innovative tools like pheromone-based traps, producers are exploring practical ways to eliminate chemicals while keeping farms productive.
The next Climate-Smart Agriculture workshop is expected to take place in Mareeba in October — watch this space!
Climate-Smart Agriculture in the Northern Gulf is supported by the Australian Government through funding from the Natural Heritage Trust under the Climate-Smart Agriculture Program.