The thrust of research, industry collaborations, education and extension activities at Lincoln University over the past 20 years has been towards the minimisation of pesticide use and wherever practical its elimination from New Zealand’s plant-based production systems.
Lincoln University has approached the pesticide issue on several fronts. The identification and measurement of pesticide residues and other environmental contaminants has been pursued down toxicological paths using conventional assay methods but also novel technologies based on earthworms and fish as “biological markers”. This latter work, by Lincoln University’s Associate Professor of Toxicology Dr Ravi Gooneratne, has attracted international interest and attention.
To reduce agricultural and horticultural reliance on pesticides for disease and insect control the University has made a huge commitment to bio-protection.
Bio-protection encompasses a wide range of management strategies that use natural, biological interactions to deliver effective control of crop weeds, pests and diseases.
The University’s commitment in this area of work has been heavily funded by the Government - reflecting its own commitment to this sort of approach. Lincoln University is the base for the National Centre for Advanced Bio-Protection Technologies.
This centre, established in 2003 and headed by Lincoln University’s Professor of Plant Pathology Alison Stewart, is a New Zealand-wide collaborative grouping of leading plant protection scientists pursuing research and development to meet the biosecurity and pest management needs of New Zealand’s plant-based primary industries and natural eco-systems.
In June this year the Government announced indicative funding for the Centre totally $24 million for the period 2009-2015.
Professor Stewart’s own research has concentrated on the development of biological control systems for soil-borne diseases in horticulture and viticulture. Research by Professor Stewart and her team over the past decade has resulted in the commercialisation of four biocontrol products, the most recent registered for use against Botrytis diseases of grapevine and tomato crops.
Which species do we prioritise for management - the most widespread, the most noxious, the easiest to control? That’s one of a number of questions that Lincoln University’s Professor of Plant Biosecurity Philip Hulme grapples with, and it’s a fundamental one in the world of pest control and the allocation of resources.
Enhancing biodiversity to improve biological control and other “services of nature” is another approach being explored and pursued by Lincoln University scientists. The “Greening Waipara” Project, headed by Lincoln University’s Professor of Ecology Steve Wratten, is a six-year Government funded programme to make use of biodiversity and nature’s own services (such as the biological control of pests) to reduce chemical inputs in the wine growing area of Waipara in North Canterbury. It is a true grower-researcher partnership with some 40 vineyards and wineries participating.
So, this is the role of Lincoln University today - helping to put the “clean” into New Zealand’s “green” image.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
Ian Collins, Communications Group, Lincoln University
Tel: (03) 3252811 ext 8549. Email: collinsi@lincoln.ac.nz