New research by the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) will focus on the fungal disease Verticillium wilt to help the $2-billion-a-year Australian cotton industry to manage the risk associated with the disease.
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NSW DPI Plant Pathologist Dr Karen Kirkby and her team, based at the Australian Cotton Research Institute in Narrabri, will collaborate with DPI Research Scientist Dr Toni Chapman at the Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute to develop a tool for cotton growers to determine the level of Verticillium dahliae in soil.
“Verticillium wilt is a high-priority disease in the cotton industry biosecurity plan, and … it can reduce yields by 30-40 per cent,” Dr Kirkby said. “Our aim is to assist cotton growers to implement practices that reduce the impact of Verticillium wilt, assisted by a new tool that can quantify the inoculum levels in the soils.”
Dr Kirkby said the incidence and severity of the Verticillium wilt determined through field surveys, and inoculum levels estimated from soil samples collected at the same time, will be assessed to determine the potential risk to crops.
“The objective of this project is to develop a fast and accurate fee-for-service diagnostic test that will identify the strains of the pathogen that cause Verticillium wilt in cotton [and] … pathogen levels in soil,” she said.
“Knowing what strain, and what level of inoculum, is present in a particular field will enable growers … to make informed planting decisions to minimise the risk of yield losses associated with Verticillium wilt.”
This project is being undertaken as part of the Digital Technologies for Dynamic Management of Disease, Stress and Yield Program, supported by Wine Australia and Cotton Research and Development Corporation, through funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources as part of its Rural R&D for Profit programme and NSW DPI.
