|
CSIRO Media Release |
|||
| Mr Julian Cribb | (02) 6276-6244 | |||
| Mobile | (0418) 639-245 | |||
| Fax | (02) 6276-6821 | |||
|
|
||||
16 December 1998 |
Ref 98/291 |
|
|
Fresh opportunities to expand agrifood exports to Asia and the world from Australia's tropics are starting to flow to industry from a three-year top-priority research push.
New crops, more sustainable farming systems, higher quality produce and better control of pests and weeds are the outcomes of a comprehensive CSIRO research effort to underpin the development of northern industries.
Sugar, beef, mangoes, cotton, soybeans and cashew nuts are among the industries to benefit from the program, Deputy Chief Executive Dr John Radcliffe says.
Dr Radcliffe said the Tropical Agri-Exports program was initiated as a result of a recommendation in a report by the Australian Science and Technology Council in 1994, urging greater focus on the agricultural opportunities in the North.
"We have also tackled major issues of environmental sustainability for the North such as acid soils, woody weeds and better ways to control fruit flies," he explains.
The $1.8 billion sugar industry is poised to benefit from two research projects conducted with industry and designed to give Australia's customers higher quality and producers an edge over their competitors. Just one of these projects is expected to yield $32 million in cost savings a year.
The northern beef industry is the subject of a major study aimed at improving the quality and supply of live cattle to markets in the Asia-Pacific in the medium term. The project has yielded a large amount of information from graziers and will help set cattle performance benchmarks for different regions.
Its goal is to define cattle production capacity (both growth and breeding) for various regions of the northern rangelands, and identify how producers can best meet the requirements of different markets.
Northern cotton, the segment of Australia's $1.6 billion cotton industry with the greatest potential for expansion, will receive a boost from the identification of cotton plants specially adapted for northern and dryland conditions.
The research, undertaken through a highly successful collaboration with Agriculture WA, has also achieved a better understanding of the factors which influence the crop's growth in the northern environment. A technological package has been developed for irrigated dry-season cotton production in northwestern Australia.
The northern cotton industry will also benefit from better control of insect pests through novel integrated pest management systems based on gene-modified cottons. These cottons will dramatically reduce the need for chemical sprays.
In a project to assist the North's booming $70 million mango industry, researchers led by the late Dr Elias Chacko have come up with a new treatment to induce flowering in Australia's most widely grown mango variety, Kensington Pride.
Cincturing the tree with a piece of twine soaked in a compound which induces flowering enables mango growers to time fruit yields to the demands of the market. The treatment is looking so promising that a group of local Northern Territory growers are funding a series of large scale trials on their own properties this year. (This work is being conducted in collaboration with the Northern Territory Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries).
Another team of CSIRO scientists, in collaboration with the Queensland Department of Primary Industry and the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, has also laid the ground for a new industry in cashew nut production, with the aim of replacing imports worth up to $35m a year.
Field trials have established the water, fertiliser and pest control needs of cashew trees grown under Australian conditions, and identified very high-yielding cashew hybrids. The result is the publication of a "best practice" guide published by CSIRO and written in conjunction with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries for farmers planning to set up northern cashew orchards.
CSIRO researchers at Townsville have developed a range of high-value culinary soybeans, specially attuned to Asian markets. The project took commercially successful temperate varieties and adapt them by modern breeding techniques for the tropics. The developed varieties include ones suitable for making traditional Japanese foods such as natto, tofu and miso, as well as soybeans for making confectionery.
Other projects in the Tropical Agri-Exports program are aimed at ensuring that Australia not only has one of the world's most productive agricultural systems, but also one of the most sustainable, Dr Radcliffe says.
The development of acid soils has been shown to pose a long term risk to farming throughout Australia's tropics, especially on light soils. The problem is most likely to develop on highly-productive improved pastures containing stylo or leucaena and on sugar cane properties where high levels of nitrogen fertiliser have been used. To identify the potential extent of the problem in Australia, scientists have developed ways to map the soils most at risk of acidification, then have sought management options for growers to reduce the hazard which vary according to pasture and crop conditions.
CSIRO has also devised a counterattack against the invasion of woody weeds that currently cost the grazing industry millions and causing environmental havoc over tracts of the northern rangelands.
Researchers have devised a range of strategically-timed tactics for landholders to use against invaders such as rubber vine, mesquite and prickly acacia, including the use of grazing pressure, fire, herbicide and mechanical control. Work to develop an effective biological control for woody weeds is also in progress.
In a further program aimed at a notorious tropical pest, CSIRO researchers had made progress in developing a more effective long-lasting bait for the Queensland fruit fly.
"After three years of solid work it is pleasing to report
there have been some concrete outcomes from the nine major project
areas which are already delivering benefits to producers in a
number of industries, large and small," he said.
More information:
Dr Elizabeth Heij, Chief, CSIRO Tropical Agriculture
07 3214 2217
Grant McDuling, CSIRO Tropical Agriculture 07 3214 2361
Katrina Nitschke, CSIRO Plant Industry 02 6246 5077
Margaret Bryant, CSIRO Land & Water 08 9333 6215
(Australia's largest scientific research organisation)
[CSIRO Search] [What's New] [Help] [Newsline] [CSIRO Home Page]
©Copyright 1998, CSIRO Australia
Use of this web site and information available from it is subject to our
Legal Notice and Disclaimer