This Onions New Zealand-A Lighter Touch project aims to fill the gap between finding new tools and integrating them into practical, regionally relevant crop protection programmes. 

The project builds on earlier work identifying biological and alternative products with potential for onions thrips control, shifting the focus from finding new tools to programme development and grower adoption.  

Onion thrips (Thrips tabaci) is a priority pest and widespread across the three onion growing regions of Pukekohe, Hawke’s Bay and Canterbury.  

With regional differences in weather and pest pressure, crop management approaches need to be regionally relevant and adaptable across different farm systems.   

 Alongside Onions NZ, growers, advisors and crop protection companies will be involved in developing the programmes. The project will also deliver a structured extension, monitoring, and evaluation framework to support grower adoption.   

 Thrips species are one of the highest-ranking crop protection gaps across all ALT sectors, therefore the project will provide other industries with insights that could be adopted in their sector for the control of thrips and the development of effective extension tools. 

Read more about the project:
June 2026: Grower uptake focus of onions thrips project