As part of the Hort Innovation project ‘Building Best Management Practice Capacity for the Australian Mango Industry’ (MG17000/BPR), a baseline practice survey was conducted with growers. Respondents that participated were from a diverse mix of orchards from across the Australian mango industry. All up 36 mango growers (representing about 20% of Australia’s mango production) were surveyed between September 2019 and April 2020 by the two Australian Mangoes Industry Development Officers. The surveys were conducted either face-to-face or by phone.
The purpose of this survey was to define the baseline practices for orchard management, harvesting and temperature management throughout the supply chain.
Australian Mangoes, along with its project partners: Queensland, Northern Territory and West Australian state agriculture departments, Central Queensland University and NT Farmers, has been collating and curating best practice content around our key topic areas which are detailed in Table 1. The survey results will assist the BPR team in; identifying the most appropriate communication and extensions methods, prioritising sub-topics for the development of resources and workshop/ webinar content, and to provide a benchmark of current production practices.
KEY STATISTICS
Demographics
Learning Preferences
Graph 3 indicates the need to have a centralised resource located on the Australian Mangoes website with regular updates provided through Australian Mangoes’ publications. The figure also shows the important role that other growers and private consultants have in providing advice to industry. The BPR team could consider involving “champions” to promote the key messages.
These answers in Graph 4 indicate that the BPR team should ensure field days are conducted throughout the life of the project. It would also be useful to include presentations from trusted growers, as most growers like practical based learning such as observing others’ on- farm practices or seeing technology/ ideas in action.
Production practices
Respondents were asked to rate their knowledge and confidence on a range of topics from 1 to 10 (with 1 being very poor and 10 being excellent). Growers rated their confidence/knowledge of crop forecasting the lowest (5.9) and canopy management the highest (7.8). These results will assist the BPR team in prioritising the development of resources and workshop content. For example, it would seem that growers would appreciate guidance on predicting their crop forecast.
For further information about the survey/project, please contact Industry Development Officer Sarah Hain on P: 0457 555 939 or E: sarah@mangoes.net.au.