Another year has flown by and with lots happening on the levy front, it was a busy year for the ‘Nursery industry communications program’ (NY18001).
2020 has been unpredictable at best and the industry has faced several challenges presented in the form of climate variability, pest incursions and COVID-19 induced market pressures.
Amidst these pressures, the nursery industry has kept the ball rolling, delivering and communicating high-value R&D project and marketing information to growers and industry stakeholders through f case studies, videos, eNewsletters, blogs and media releases.
Specifically, this year the industry has been provided with:
- 10 grower case studies, featuring a range of nurseries and producers from across Australia exploring Integrated Pest Management, people development, marketing and the value of nursery industry data.
- 6 grower case study videos, hearing from industry representatives and production nursery management about their experiences with pest control, plant protection programs such as NIASA and natural disaster mitigation.
- Facts at a Glance, providing a snapshot of industry statistics for 2018-19 as result of the Nursery Industry Statistics project (NY17008).
- The 2020 Levy Payer Kit, a resource breaking down the levy, how it’s allocated, and how levy payers and other stakeholders can share ideas and influence the direction and investment of the levy.
- Various levy-funded project updates such as the industry’s marketing COVID-19 response, the Tree Investment Tool and Where Will All The Trees Be national canopy benchmarking report.
- Monthly Nursery Papers, eNewsletters, and weekly social media plans, highlight levy funded project updates and key industry news.
This year, the Greenlife Australia National Conference was held in March 2020, scraping through as one of the last memories of a pre-COVID world. Being the International Year of Plant Health, the conference aimed to educate and inform the nursery industry on the importance of plant health as well as the benefits they have on communities physical and social wellbeing. While in Perth, the communications team were able to spotlight several Western Australian production nurseries through communications outputs including Benara Nurseries and Touchwood Nursery.
Though the limitations that arose through COVID-19 meant that face-to-face events came to a halt, industry was quick to pivot to drive insights and engagement to growers through virtual workshops and webinars.
Growers and production staff were able to attend a series of pest and disease webinars, hosted by the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries as well as a live demonstration of the newly developed business benchmarking tool, all of which are available for playback online, making them useful resources that can be drawn upon whenever convenient.
With plenty on the horizon, the New Year will bring fresh updates surrounding projects and resources that industry can look forward to benefitting from.
Stay tuned in early 2021 for a rundown on the year ahead.
A ‘Nursery industry communications program’ (NY18001) is funded by Hort Innovation using nursery industry levies and funds from the Australian Government.
Source: http://yourlevyatwork.com.au/thats-a-wrap-on-2020-communications-program/