Panelists at evoke AG discussing the potential of biologics. Pam Marrone, PhD, Platform 10 Advisory board member discussed the progress of Platform 10 and work of Western Growers to address the challenges in widespread adoption and scalability.
even the major pest priorities are not dissimilar, including thrips, diamond back moth and army worm. Of course, a trip to New Zealand wouldn’t be complete without a stop in Te Puke, the kiwi fruit capital of the world. Improved kiwifruit variety development is a key priority for the Kiwifruit Breeding Centre (KBC), a joint venture between PFR and Zespri, the world’s largest marketer of kiwifruit. As we huddled under the dense kiwi orchard canopy, we learned that this past season was exceptionally challenging due to extreme weather events, a ‘new normal’ growers have been experiencing around the word. As the industry faces new diseases and impacts from climate change, leveraging new tools and technologies is critical to building resilience and producing sustainably.
Outlook from the Outback The Evoke ag conference in Perth, Australia, is the largest ag tech event south of the equator. We presented the work of WG in Biologicals to a group of UK, New Zealand and Australian state, federal and private agricultural interest and research groups. Our Platform 10 event was kicked off by Karen Ross, who emphasized the importance of ecosystem health, human health and economic viability for agriculture in California. This trip was an outcome of groundwork that was laid out at the 2023 Salinas Biological Summit; an opportunity to reciprocate the commitment to partnerships that our international collaborators demonstrated to accelerate global development of biologicals. We are so grateful for the generous hospitality of all of our hosts and for these opportunities to develop this platform to exchange ideas and build collaborative partnerships at a global scale.
An early morning flight on a prop airplane leaving Tauranga. Kiwifruit orchards are identifiable even from up above, due to the ubiquitous windbreaks (called ‘shelterbelts’ locally) enclosing each field, with neat rows of kiwifruit vines nestled between the mountains. The majority of kiwi production in New Zealand occurs between the Kai Mais mountain range and the Bay of Plenty.
Dennis, Jeana and the staff at Plant and Food Research in front of the Ultra High Resolution Scanning Electron Microscope, aka CLARA, used to research the Samurai Wasp, a tiny predatory wasp that has a preference for Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB).
14 Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com May | June 2024
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