Australia and China Form Joint Biosecurity Partnership to Prevent Grain Losses

Grain biosecurity is a serious industry concern, with China losing approximately 30% of its harvested grain to pests each year according to executive officer, Dr. Michael Robinson with the Australian Biosecurity Cooperative Research Center (CRC).

To help both Australia and China reduce these losses, The Australian Biosecurity Cooperative Research Center (CRC), Murdoch University, and the Chinese Academy of state Administration of Grain will be the founding entities of the Australia-China Joint Center for Postharvest Grain Biosecurity and Quality Research.

The focus of the new center will be to develop new non-chemical controls for pest management to reduce post-harvest grain loss, and to protect against grain-related biosecurity risks.

"Both Australia and China have a serious interest in grains," said Dr. Robinson. "For reasons one, of export, but two also, from a China point of view, feeding the nation."

Due to the increasing resistance of pests to common chemical controls such as phosphine, the center will focus its attention on developing low-oxygen and nitrogen recirculation technologies, and ‘lure and kill’ technologies which entail using pheromones and light-based traps to reduce pests.

Funding the initial stages of the joint project will total between $5 million and $6 million, which is expected to be supplied by the Federal Government’s Australia-China Joint Research Fund in addition to various government and private research partners.

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