May 12, 2015
The University of Southern Queensland has benefited from the first round of the Federal Government’s new “Rural R&D for Profit” program.
Two of the university’s projects – targeting intelligent irrigation and seasonal climate forecasting – have received assistance.
The $4 million “Smarter Irrigation for Profit” project will look to improve irrigation efficiencies in the dairy, cotton, rice and sugar industries.
Researchers believe real-time automatic control of irrigation systems could achieve water efficiencies of 90 per cent.
The university’s International Centre for Applied Climate Sciences (ICACS) will be working on the $3.5 million “Improved Use of Seasonal Forecasting to Increase Farm Profitability” project.
“Australian rural industry continually faces the highest year-to-year climate variability in the world and much of this variability can be forecast,” ICACs director Prof Roger Stone said.
“The challenge is managing scientific developments in this area and linking these forecasts to key farm management decisions so farmers and other key players in the agricultural value chain can make more money in the potentially good years and reduce their risks in the likely bad years.”
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Other projects to receive part of the $26.7 million Federal Government funding:
- Australian Pork Limited – Waste to revenue: novel fertilisers and feeds
- Dairy Australia Limited – Stimulating private sector extension in Australian agriculture to increase returns from R&D
- Dairy Australia Limited – Integrating very large genomic and milk infrared data to improve profitability of dairy cows
- Fisheries Research and Development Corporation – Growing a profitable, innovative, collaborative Australian yellowtail kingfish aquaculture industry
- Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited – Multi-scale monitoring tools for managing tree crops
- Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited – Adaptive area-wide management of Qfly
- Meat and Livestock Australia – Market and Consumer Insights to Drive Food Value Chain Innovation and Growth
- Meat and Livestock Australia – Fast-tracking and maximising the long-lasting benefits of weed biological control for farm productivity
- Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation – Consolidating targeted and practical extension services for Australian farmers and fishers
- Sugar Research Australia – A profitable future for Australian agriculture: Biorefineries for higher-value animal feeds, chemicals and fuels
The two projects that USQ are involved with are being led by the Cotton Research and Development Corporation and the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation.
