Clark outlines the GRDC Northern region's 20-year R&D strategy across three timeframes: immediate grower solutions, four to five year university research, and long-term breeding for water efficiency and disease resistance. The region now spans to the Murray, with Tamworth and Wagga jointly delivering research across New South Wales. Weed resistance and crop nutrition are top priorities.
Chapters
GLDC has got a Northern region strategy. It's to ensure that there's a pipeline of R and D coming to growers which is going to answer their questions both here now and also into the future. So we're trying to look over the horizon. The other major part of the strategy is making sure the region has the capacity and capability in R and D to deliver for the next 20 years. It's really important that we continue to develop researchers as well as continue to look at research for the future. The strategy will deliver benefits to growers both now and well into the future. We're looking at short term measures, so answering growers immediate questions and we tend to do that through our grower solutions groups. And we have an investment window there which we call 1 to 3. So that has our updates and our workshops and the stuff that growers attend regularly. The next part of the strategy or the next window of delivery is really where we work with the universities and the departments of agriculture traditionally and with the key researchers that growers would be very familiar with. And that's looking at the immediate issues, but also looking at what issues are coming over the horizon in the next four to five years. And finally we have our breeding and pre breeding, which are really long term investments where GRDC is trying to find traits that are going to benefit growers into the future, such as water use, efficiency and disease resistance. As you'd be aware, GRDC has just recently moved the boundary of the Northern region down to the Murray that I think will be a big benefit for growers within New South Wales. It means we have both Tamworth and Wagga looking at delivering research right across New South Wales and they're two of our major research centres. I see it as a major benefit for growers in that central west area of New South Wales because traditionally they've been at the bottom of the northern region and the top of the southern region and probably haven't been the centre of attention like they are now in New South Wales. And it's a very big grain production area and you know, the old idea that summer crops stopped north of Dubbo is gone. I think we're seeing crops now all the way down, virtually down to the border. So I think it'll allow us to do R and D and certainly deliver outputs to grower in a much more efficient way. I don't think there'll be an issue with the extending of the northern RD and E strategy across the whole of New South Wales. I actually see some really major benefits in doing that. It allows Tamworth and Wagga to work as one. And, you know, they're major RD centres for New South Wales. So I think we can now see those working together. I think we can link our key researchers, particularly in areas like pathology and soils. I think there's gonna be some real strength in that for growers going forward. Key research priorities for the Northern region are still weed, weed resistance, herbicide resistance, and are still nutrition. I think nutrition's the growing one. Certainly, talking to more and more growers, they're realising that they're needing to put more on. That's a challenge, because certainly in some areas, it's been really tough with the environment we've got, and we don't want to increase growers costs. But they're still the two major issues that we're working on. And we're certainly seeing growers wanting more money spent there and better delivery.
