The allocation of resources for the control of barley diseases, both at the grower level when deciding whether to control a particular disease and at the national level when allocating funds for research and development, depends on an assessment of the losses caused by those diseases. In this study, the estimates of barley disease losses have
been obtained from a survey of barley pathologists across Australia.
 
An examination has been made of the present costs of barley diseases and the potential costs if current control measures were not in place, as well as the value of controls used. These figures provide key insights into the importance of barley diseases in Australia. 

Barley diseases cause an estimated current average annual loss of $252 million, or $66.49 per hectare, to the
Australian barley industry. This loss is 19.5 per cent of the average annual value of the barley crop over the past
decade. Nationally, five diseases dominate these losses:

Disease Loss Barley (1309k - pdf)

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