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An article presented in a Victorian Education magazine in 2003.When a five-week training program can teach a farmer how to reduce pesticide use from four sprays a week to none, any doubts they may have had about the benefits of training quickly fade. This, according to Victoria Mack and Mary Johnson, the directors of Hamilton-based training provider, Land Connect, is the secret of success of a revolution taking place in local pesticide use. Over the past three years, Land Connect has delivered an innovative program called Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to a number of rural businesses now reaping the environmental and economic benefits of the training. “Land Connect’s role is one of program design, management and delivery. We begin by meeting with the client to discuss their needs and expectations of the training, and then get the right people together at the right time to make it happen,” said Ms Mack. “We don’t have trainers on staff, because we aim to find the best possible presenter for every training program we deliver.” In the case of IPM training, the presenters are Dr Paul Horne and Jessica Page of IPM Technologies, a company that specialises in pest management research and the implementation of IPM across a range of farming industries in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. IPM is not new, according to Dr Horne. “Many farmers have heard about it, some have even tried it but with little success because the general information available is not sufficient to apply to individual crops,” said Dr Horne. “The benefit of Land Connect’s training is that because it is presented to small groups from a handful of farming industries at one time, it tailors the general information to the specific business types represented. “In a room full of vegetable growers and rose horticulturalists we can apply the training to the particular types of pests that effect their crops.” In essence, IPM teaches farmers how to minimise – and in many cases eradicate – the use of pesticide. “The basis of IPM is monitoring. Farmers make decisions about pesticide use based on what pests they find in their crops,” said Dr Horne. “The use of biological agents is also taught, where the offending pests are identified and their natural predators introduced – further reducing the need for chemical controls.” This is a long way from the traditional practice of ‘calendar sprays’ where weekly (or more frequent) sprays using broad-spectrum insecticide are undertaken regardless of the presence of pests. Apart from the obvious environmental benefits, Dr Horne said that ultimately it is the economic savings that convert farmers to the IPM way. “The economic implications are much greater than just the savings made by reduced chemical use. The presence of pesticide residue on products, for instance, can potentially result in a farmer losing his contract. By eradicating pesticide use, this risk is eliminated,” he said. The IPM training program is just one of Land Connect’s success stories in its short four year history. The training provider has also worked recently with a waste management consortium to deliver a waste management awareness and customer service program to five local Councils. “Land Connect is really focussed on delivering short course training with environmental outcomes. We feel that this gives us an edge and a niche, because it allows us to respond quickly and flexibly to clients’ needs,” said director, Mary Johnson. “We can work at the cutting edge, providing new information and technologies to clients by collaborating on their behalf with multi-stakeholders and field experts to develop the most suitable and effective training program for them.” Ultimately, the key success indicator for Land Connect says Ms Johnson is the training’s sustainability. “Our greatest satisfaction is in walking out the door and knowing that the outcomes of the training will be supported and implemented well after the formal program has ended
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