Creating an enabling environment for industry-driven pest suppression: The case of suppressing Queensland fruit fly through area-wide management

Increasing concerns about pests call for the development and uptake of innovative pest management approaches. This coincides with many governments pushing for greater industry self-reliance. This paper investigates how to create a more enabling environment for local industries to suppress Queensland fruit fly (QFly) through industry-driven, area-wide management (AWM). This key recommended approach requires high technical capability and is reliant on cooperation between horticulture growers and other risk contributors, such as town residents, with QFly hosts on their properties. Agriculture Innovation Systems thinking and a functional-structural analysis are applied to the current QFly management innovation system to understand how it constrains or facilitates local industries pursuing AWM. This assists with identifying governance interventions that will support local industries to undertake AWM. Data is derived from semi-structured interviews with key informants from stakeholder groups and a grower survey in three regions where AWM has been achieved or is being attempted. Key blocking mechanisms hindering local industries to pursue AWM have been identified as a lack of local capacity; weak connections between local industries and the broader innovation system; lack of AWM investment; and reliance on voluntary cooperation. Suggestions for policy interventions include supporting intermediation; strengthening local capacity and enabling co-regulation.