A small group of around 20 came together at a trial workshop last week to learn more about the importance of on-orchard biosecurity and how good plans can manage the threat posed by unwanted biosecurity threats.

A mix of growers, crop monitoring and management staff, biosecurity personnel, and technical advisors from across the kiwifruit and avocado industries took part in discussions about practical actions and concepts that can be put in place day-to-day to monitor, assess, and mitigate risk.

Participants worked through how to develop their own biosecurity best practice checklist detailing what they currently do, what could be done better, and the priority for implementing improvements, including thinking about how to incorporate biosecurity activity in to systems already in place (for Health & Safety for example) instead of creating new ones.

Pilot workshops are based on the biosecurity micro-credential programme and are taking place across horticulture. The Primary Industry Training Organisation (ITO), together with the horticulture industry, has developed the micro-credential - a short, focused piece of learning - to enhance industry biosecurity capability. It covers biosecurity principles, on-farm practices, and an assessment component, and has been developed under the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) framework, targeting grower owner-operators and supervisors/managers.