$20 Million grains investment

Thursday, 28 July 2011

The Victorian Government hopes a new $20 million investment in grains research will put more dollars in the bank for Victoria's grain growers.

Minister for Agriculture and Food Security Peter Walsh announced the funding commitment from the Victorian Government and the Grains Research and Development Corporation in Horsham today.

Over the next five years, $20 million will be spent in an effort to expand southern Australia's pulse growing region and breed new pulse varieties including peas, lentils, chickpeas and faba beans.

In coming seasons five new lentil varieties and two new types of peas are expected to be released.

The investment will help food producers grow pulses into high and low rainfall zones and increase the pulse rate to 30-40 per cent of the rotation in medium rainfall cropping regions.

The research will be led by Department of Primary Industries (DPI) scientists in Horsham.

DPI leads the national grains breeding program for field peas and lentils coordinating experiments at 20 sites across Australia.

DPI's scientists carry out extensive research to identify new traits for use in breeding programs that will help to combat diseases, respond to climate variability and soil constraints.

Research is also being conducted on traits to achieve agronomic improvements such as herbicide tolerance and better harvestability.

A new herbicide-tolerant lentil will be available to farmers in 2012 but this is only the start.

Approximately $3 million will be used to assess new varieties so that when they were released for commercial use growers had information about how to best to grow them. The work identifies maximum production traits in modern no-till or minimum-till systems.

This investment will give Victoria's grain growers an international advantage and place them at the cutting edge of scientific research.