Our Research Program

BioResources Pty Ltd and Coates Horticulture have recently formed a research partnership to investigate various pest control issues in the Macadamia Industry.

We need a better understanding of the behaviour of the major pests and how to best manage them in more sustainable ways. We also think there are ways to make macadamia farms more resistant to pest incursions by making the crop a more favourable environment for beneficial arthropods.

We are now part of the new HIA Macadamia IPM Project MC16008 and we will focus on:

Inter-Row Management to Conserve and Encourage Beneficials

We want to find out if there are better ways to manage inter row areas to maximise local beneficial insects. Significant attention has been focused in macadamias on inter row management to benefit erosion control, nutrition, water absorbtion etc but little attention in regard to maximising natural enemies.

Download: Inter-Row Project Description

To start, we want to bring together various research and observations in this area both locally and around the world. There are stong observations that more diversity and growth in the inter row will provide a better environment for natural enemies to make a useful contribution to pest control. See our:

Literature Review - BioResources Inter-Row Project

We want to test this hypothesis more rigourously by setting up trial sites as well as grower "best bet" case study sites. We'll provide updates as the project progresses.