I can only speak of Australian / Queensland trends and moves to include biological control have less to do with direct official policy (AFAIK) and more to natural innovation and R&D by various universities and other agricultural based entities to further Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices. No doubt there would be some indirect policy that would prompting better or safer methods of weed control.
As for sustainable, well it is going to depend if there any more instances where unintended biological consequences despite well meaning aims.
The main problem in the Australian market I see is that once an already existing biological product competes well, it may lead to forcing out the old competition such it's not worthwhile for a chemical company to have a particular herbicide product tested once more and registered for use within Australia, the price of the new biological product will become prohibitive for less well off farmers.
I can only speak of Australian / Queensland trends and moves to include biological control have less to do with direct official policy (AFAIK) and more to natural innovation and R&D by various universities and other agricultural based entities to further Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices. No doubt there would be some indirect policy that would prompting better or safer methods of weed control.
As for sustainable, well it is going to depend if there any more instances where unintended biological consequences despite well meaning aims.
The main problem in the Australian market I see is that once an already existing biological product competes well, it may lead to forcing out the old competition such it's not worthwhile for a chemical company to have a particular herbicide product tested once more and registered for use within Australia, the price of the new biological product will become prohibitive for less well off farmers.