The economic impact of failures in plant protection to New Zealand
Author and article information
Abstract
Plant weeds, pests and diseases comprise significant threats to pastoral agriculture in New Zealand. The extent of damage incurred by New Zealand’s agricultural industry from these weed and pest threats varies significantly depending on the response implemented, and the technologies available. This paper assesses the projected economic impact of three individual potential failures in plant protection, specifically the spread of clover root weevil, giant buttercup and glassy-winged sharpshooter across New Zealand, and the potential mitigation of economic loss caused by these failures through various response methods. This assessment is carried out with the use of a national-level agricultural production and value model, based on data from the Ministry for Primary Industries farm models and the Lincoln Trade and Environment Model, an international trade and environment model. The model projects economic impact on agriculture until 2030, comparing the differences in economic impact between business as usual without the advent of each threat and then with the advent of each threat alongside various potential responses. The modelled responses cover firstly the most probable responses, and secondly the use of biological control agents, in the form of a parasitoid or bio-herbicide control. The results show that biological controls offer the most effective and feasible responses to the modelled threats to pastoral agriculture compared with other responses.
Cite this as
2013. The economic impact of failures in plant protection to New Zealand. PeerJ PrePrints 1:e140v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.140v1Sections
Additional Information
Competing Interests
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
Author Contributions
John T Saunders conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper.
Caroline M Saunders conceived and designed the experiments, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools.
James G Buwalda conceived and designed the experiments, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools.
Pip J Gerard conceived and designed the experiments, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools.
Graeme W Bourdôt conceived and designed the experiments, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools.
Stephen D Wratten contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper.
Stephen L Goldson conceived and designed the experiments, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper.
Funding
This work was funded by the Tertiary Education Commission through the Bio-Protection Research Centre, Lincoln University. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
