Investment in science and industry development key to profitable agrifood sector 2

HIGHLIGHTS

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  Microspore-based techniques are used where immature pollen cells (microspores) are diverted from their normal developmental pathway to one of embryogenesis and haploid plant development. Following a chromosome-doubling step, the resulting doubled haploids are fully fertile and 100% homozygous at all loci.
  
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  DAFWA’s Cereal Doubled Haploid Program provides a national fee-based service to develop wheat and barley doubled haploid lines for breeders and cereal researchers.
  
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  The DAFWA program is currently the only laboratory producing barley doubled haploids and one of only two wheat doubled haploid laboratories in Australia.
  

DAFWA Technical officer Li Liu in glasshouse

Quinoa research explores potential for ‘superfood’ crop

Science team: Richard Snowball (project leader), Mark Warmington, Harmohinder Dhammu, Mario D’Antuono, Dr Darshan Sharma

The superfood quinoa is a warm season crop suited to irrigation that is showing potential in rainfed environments of the WA grainbelt.

DAFWA research aims to test the adaptation of quinoa at a variety of locations across Australia and potentially make a variety available to growers.

The project’s objectives include:

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  transitioning quinoa from a niche, cottage and organic crop to wider adoption across broadacre farming environments by undertaking field testing that may lead to the development of variety options
  
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  developing and providing knowledge on agronomy, production and seed processing to growers and industry.
  

Field testing is underway in the south-east of SA, central southern NSW, Katherine and Alice Springs in the NT, and Kununurra, Mingenew and Cunderdin in WA.

Trials will initially test suitability to either irrigated or rainfed environments and investigate a range of sowing times, seeding rates and N applications. Simultaneously, herbicide tolerance trials are under way to find suitable options to use in quinoa crops. This research is particularly important in southern Mediterranean-type environments where winter growth of quinoa is slow.

Second-stage variety type trials will test advanced lines developed in earlier work against a number of germplasm lines donated by the USDA Genebank and multiplied at Manjimup and Kununurra. Variety Medusa, owned by Australian Grown Superfoods, has been made available for the national variety trials.

Germplasm and agronomic evaluation trials are being undertaken in NSW, NT, Kununarra and south western WA in 2016 and 2107.

HIGHLIGHTS

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  Quinoa seed is called a ‘superfood’ because it has an excellent balance of amino acids, is high in minerals, vitamins and fibre, and is gluten free.
  
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  Seeds are covered in bitter-tasting saponins that can be washed off easily before cooking.
  
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  While quinoa grows well in warm environments, its performance in winter rainfed environments in southern Australia needs to be evaluated.
  
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  Weed control will be critical for the successful adoption of quinoa in broadacre cropping systems.
  
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  New varieties suited to Australian conditions could be developed and made available to growers.
  

Funding and collaborators

RIRDC, SARDI, DPI, DPIF

DAFWA Research Officer Richard Snowball with Quinoa in glasshouse

Harvesting a quinoa field trial at the Frank Wise Institute, Kununurra

58. FIELD RESEARCH SERVICES PORTFOLIO

Portfolio Manager: Ian Pritchard.
Technical team: Stephen Cosh, Julie-Anne Roche, Vincent Lambert, Steve Bell, Colin Norwood, Larry Prosser, Trevor Bell, Bruce Thorpe, Shari Dougall, Tracey Mouritzen, David Allen, Laurie Maiolo, Daniel Cox, Russell Quartermaine, Chris Matthews, Jolie Delroy, Max Karopoulos, David Farleigh, Chiquita Butler.

Field research services (FRS) ensures the delivery of timely and efficient technical expertise to implement field research experiments across the WA grainbelt.

Our team has specialist capability to undertake complex field-based experiments, phenology and physical crop measurements and use of a range of scientific grains research equipment.

We operate seven field research units to manage R&D experiments for DAFWA, CSIRO, universities and privately funded grains research projects.

Our FRS team team delivers expertise in:

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  Field research experiment management – trial site selection, seed preparation, sowing, pre- and post-emergence weed, disease and pest control treatments, trial observations and harvesting.
  
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  Trial seed production and multiplication – small quantities of seed are obtained from breeding companies and field experiments each year. The seed is cleaned and multiplied for experiments in the following year.
  
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  Management of field research facilities and land for field research – research facilities are managed and maintained for field experiments, particularly in situations considered unsuitable for growers paddocks due to unacceptable risks associated with intellectual property; biosecurity implications (disease trials); prevalence of weeds, pests and diseases; unregistered herbicides and fungicides; and genetically modified organisms.
  
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  Establishment and management of research facilities.
  

These new research projects frequently need the establishment of new field operations and infrastructure. Our team ensures the timely commencement and implementation of new research field projects taking a lead role in the procurement of land and infrastructure to support field-based grains R&D activities.

We also manage DAFWA’s New Genes for New Environments (NGNE) facilities located at Merredin and Katanning, which enable trialling of GM crops in a variety of environments, and the managed environment facility (MEF) located at Merredin, which allows water use efficiency traits to be evaluated under a range of heat and drought conditions within any year.

FRS will continue to develop its capability and equipment to manage the complexity and technologies involved in establishing and managing field experiments, applying investigative treatments, evaluating crop growth and development, and other field measurements. Our expertise will evolve to tackle cutting-edge applied grains R&D.