Understanding the economic impact of Macrophomina (Charcoal rot)

This investment will quantify the potential economic impact of Macrophomina on sorghum and soybean production in Australia. In doing so it will also contribute to our understanding of Macrophomina epidemiology, such as questions regarding Macrophomina tecta species specificity and the dynamics of potential species co-infection. The information generated from this investment will inform future investments into development of integrated management strategies. The investment will undertake field and laboratory experiments, and data compilation/analysis of past investments to gather essential information on the disease incidence, and severity, and triggers for symptom expression and subsequent yield loss. Observational data from the experiments and data compiled from previous works will provide current undertraining of Macrophomina epidemiology with focus on pathogen species specificity, co-infection dynamics and contribution to lodging in sorghum. Data from the epidemiology report will also contribute to the economic analysis to determine susceptibility of sorghum and soybean to the pathogen and determine the related value in terms of yield loss. Collaboration with growers, agronomists, and industry stakeholders will ensure the relevance and practicality of the research outcomes.