Meeting the Governments Priorities

Broader Community Benefits of the Program

On 28 January 1997 the then Minister for Primary Industries and Energy, the Honourable John Anderson, MP, advised RIRDC of five government priorities and asked that each of these priorities be addressed in the research plans of the Corporation. Examples of projects that address each of these priority areas are summarised below.

These priority areas are addressed in each of the programs of the Operational Plan 1999–2000.

In addition to the five priority areas identified by the Minister, the question of broader community benefits from RIRDC-funded programs is also discussed.
 

Meeting the Governments Priorities

Identify strategic international market access and investment opportunities

• Develop market strategies for bushfoods.
• Develop marketing strategies for camel and buffalo.
• Identify new niche market opportunities for deer products in Europe, North America and Australia.
• Publish a report on market opportunities in North America for Australian essential oils and plant extracts.
• Broaden the range of new wildflowers available to the industry or being evaluated by growers.
• Release several new pasture seed legume varieties with good export potential.
• Produce a book that updates information on the potential for resurgence of agribusiness in Asian markets and the implications for Australian businesses.
• Produce a series of research reports on crucial issues, which will support the next WTO round of trade policy reform negotiations.

Increase productivity of land, labour and capital in rural industries

• Develop virus-free garlic production systems.
• Develop canopy management in lychee production.
• Identify prospective crops for northern Australia.
• Publish guidelines on the maximum levels of fertilisers that can be applied to Australian soils highly suitable for cashew growing.
• Increase knowledge on the feasibility of farmed rabbit and hare industries.
• Develop production guides for a range of newer Asian vegetables including water chestnuts, lotus, hot chilli pepper, wasabi and mioga.
• Make significant progress towards the development of a decision support tool for the nutritional management of farmed deer.
• Make progress in the development of improved breeding schemes for mohair and cashmere production.
• Produce a report on a plant nutritional survey of the Australian tea tree industry.
• Expand the existing database of digestible amino acid values of Australian feedstuffs to include the amino acid, tryptophan and digestible amino acid values for a range of additional feedstuffs for chickens.
• Evaluate the potential of a vaccine for big liver and spleen disease of broiler breeders.
• Make available information on the nutritive value for broiler chickens of two new feed ingredients — namely, pearl millet and low trypsin inhibitor soybean.
• Develop strategies for enhancing the immune response of chickens to pathogens by the use of cytokines and by other means to be formulated.
• Complete a survey of pesticide resistance of the darkling beetle, a common inhabitant of poultry sheds known to harbour poultry diseases and cause damage to sheds, facilitating the development of improved control strategies for the pest.
• Develop diagnostic tools for the very virulent Infectious Bursal Disease Virus in poultry and characterisation of Australian variants.
• Improve understanding of the ecology and drug resistance of the darkling beetle (Alphitobius diaperinus), which is a major problem in the poultry industry.
• Assess the benefits of abrasive strips and abrasive paint in layer cages for hens.
• Advance several new varieties to testing for future release.
• Finalise the current stages of aquatic earthworm and bloodworm pests control activities for rice.
• Develop an innovative ground rig-spraying mechanism as a substitute for aerial spraying in rice.
• Assess rice blast fungicide development for Australia.
• Conduct a major workshop following the analysis of all the major tertiary training programs that deal with education and training in relation to horses.
• Publish booklets on respiratory disease, transport and effects of the environment on horses.
• Provide new information on the nutrition of broodmares, their foals and young horses.
• Produce a handbook for racecourse managers.
• Produce a state-of-the-art book on laminitis in horses, distilling the principal findings from RIRDC-funded research over the past four years.
• Release several new fodder crop varieties.
• Produce a fodder industry production atlas that will provide a better picture of the structure of the industry.
• Finalise a detailed temperate legume pasture seed industry cost study.
• Develop international standards for disease testing in lucerne seed.
• Finalise guidelines for effective production and harvesting of Vigna parkeri seed.
• Analyse a range of domestic impediments to the efficient development of agricultural industries, especially such things as provision and pricing of economic infrastructure, and the potential impact of occupational licensing.
• Develop a plan to assist integration of aquaculture into farm operations and to improve diversity of farm enterprises, particularly irrigation enterprises, by integrating aquaculture into operations.
• Publish a report evaluating the use of the Internet as a tool to increase the cost-effectiveness of interactions among scientists, advisers and farmers when using computer simulation models.
• Complete further reports in a series examining issues relating to the use of the Internet by farmers.
• Complete a report on a standardised classification system and thesaurus for Australian agricultural extension information.
• Finalise a study to recommend on the structure and delivery of marketing and management training for male and female farmers.
• Publish a report on the role of stock and station agents as information providers.
• Publish a report on the impact of declining infrastructure in rural Western Australia.
• Publish a report identifying principles and models to enhance the expression of creativity in agricultural R&D.
• Finalise a project on establishing the Managing Farm Safety course delivery system.
• Publish a report on the influence of seat modifications to tractors.

Encourage investment in and uptake of high quality Australian products

• Facilitate the implementation of strategic alliances, based on quality assurance and standardised payment schedules, between deer producers and processors.
• Develop conditions of use for the industry-owned quality assurance marks and encourage their adoption by the deer industry.
• Increase in the adoption of quality assurance programs by honey producers.
• Chemical honey fingerprinting authentication of floral source.
• Increase the adoption of nutrition combined with refined disease protocols to minimise the potential for treatments to adversely affect quality assurance and product image for honey.
• Finalise several current stages of significant rice quality assessment activities and assess future stages.

Encourage increased processing and delivery of value-added product for market

• Identify garlic lines with increased potential as sources of cholesterol lowering agents.
• Commercialise Asian-style tempeh-based snack foods.
• Present regional industry development seminars illustrating farmer/processor conversion from conventional farming to organic farming systems.
• Increase knowledge of the potential of mohair blending in fabrics and increase interest in Australia to manufacture in commercial volumes.
• Produce a report on tea tree oil as a topical decolonisation solution for adult in-patients with Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureas.
• Produce a report on the antiviral activity of tea tree oil in vitro skin sensitivity testing for tea tree oil.
• Complete a hospital assessment of efficacy of ‘active’ honeys against infections in such conditions as ulcers, burns and bedsores.
• Finalise recommendations for the use of microbial inoculants for improved hay preservation.
• Finalise a more accurate screening test for monitoring Corynetoxin contamination of fodder so that the industry can integrate this into its quality assurance system.
• Report on an analysis of the reasons for the export-led growth and success of the Australian wine industry and especially implications for other emerging industries.

Protect and enhance Australia’s natural resource base

• Publish a report on the use of green ants in an integrated pest management system for cashews production.
• Publish Agroforestry Guidelines to Balance Productivity with Catchment Health, the first in a new series of detailed semi-quantitative design guidelines. The design guidelines will be concerned with hydrological issues associated with agroforestry.
• Produce an Australian Farm Forestry Site Selection Guidelines, the second in the new series. The guidelines will focus specifically on paddock-scale site selection issues, primarily soil attributes, and will complement the information presented in the Catchment Health guidelines.
• Release a publication summarising the results of the National Windbreaks Program.
• Publish results from a study investigating irrigation management of young eucalypt trees over shallow watertables.
• Develop an outwardly focused training program to encourage greater awareness and adoption of organic farming systems and practices.
• Develop strategies for reducing odour emission and dispersion from meat chicken farms.
• Complete a review of environmentally acceptable land use for poultry production.
• Develop bait hives to assist capture of Apis cerana when incursions into Australia occur.
• Prepare a report from a workshop identifying the steps and procedures for harmonisation of environmental management systems that combine sustainability and commercial advantage in Australian agriculture.
• Publish a report on incursion management for exotic pests of plant industries.
• Release Australian Rainman as a Windows, multimedia CD, Internet compatible product to improve management of climate variability.
• Prepare a report on the potential benefits of rare earths to agriculture.
• Prepare a joint strategy on bioremediation and waste-water management between RIRDC, CSIRO, other R&D corporations and other stakeholders.
• Investigate research gaps relating to the health risks associated with the use of agricultural chemicals.

Broader Community Benefits of the Program

One of the important reasons for establishing RIRDC was to ensure that there is a specific source of funds to support R&D that has wider community benefits, especially R&D projects that are unlikely to be funded by other R&D corporations or the private sector.

RIRDC has focused on research that:

• results in the sustainable management of resources, especially when there are external effects of their use;
• improves market access and development programs;
• determines the implications of changes in the environment, such as climate change and variability;
• has implications for human nutrition and health;
• determines implications of practices for occupational health and safety; and
• supports the development of Australia’s research capacity.

New products and industries

Wider community benefits are an important potential component of RIRDC’s research into new and emerging industries. In many cases, identification of alternative production possibilities for farming groups can provide the diversity and scope for value-adding that can maintain the critical mass necessary to maintain rural towns and improve their viability.

RIRDC’s research covers areas such as investigating market prospects for newer industries and assessing the feasibility and methods for their competitive production.

To complement RIRDC’s original books The New Rural Industries and The New Rural Industries: Financial Indicators a range of more detailed crop and animal product ‘how-to-produce’ handbooks are continuing to be developed. These are targeted at both established farmers and agribusiness participants as well as the wider community considering investment in agriculture.

Several of the new products currently being investigated also have potential to have important impacts on human health that will affect the community well beyond the direct value of the products produced. Examples include the pharmaceutical attributes of tea tree oil, and garlic lines that are potential sources of cholesterol lowering agents.

Food safety

Although RIRDC’s established industries programs focus primarily on research that benefits all members of the levy-paying industry they also have potential to generate significant communitywide benefits.

Recent examples include projects in the egg and chicken meat programs that continue to make significant contributions to understanding the development of and testing for bacterial food contaminants. This research has important implications for all food safety areas, not just in the poultry industries.

The honeybee program continues to support research that considers the potential for some types of honey as a therapeutic agent for treating bacteria infections. All of the animal-based programs are supporting research that has potential to significantly affect the welfare of animals, especially in the chicken meat, egg, new animals and horse industries.

In the rice program, research emphasises improved water use, recharge and quality, and the sustainable use of farm chemicals. Better understanding of these areas via this research has the potential to benefit communities along Australia’s major river system. The cooperative research centre, Sustainable Rice Production, of which RIRDC is a partner, is expanding the research support in this important area.

The fodder program continues to support research on Corynetoxin contamination and effective identification to ensure that the contamination does not enter the food chain and therefore affect the health of the wider community. The original research in this area has stimulated further work by other groups.

Cross-sectoral impacts

RIRDC supports a major research effort in areas that have cross-sectoral impacts. The global competitiveness program provides assessments of impediments to Australian trade and of market prospects for all agricultural production. The impact of this type of research will have ramifications throughout the broader Australian community. Examples include projects that have provided and will continue to provide R&D support for negotiators during the next round of WTO trade policy negotiations. Changes in these policies, if they further liberalise world trade, will enhance Australia’s trading potential and, therefore, benefit agriculture and the wider community.

Research on a range of domestic policy impediments to efficient agricultural production will have potential to influence policy changes that will benefit all members of rural communities, not just farmers. An example is the analysis of the provision and pricing of economic infrastructure.

Many research activities in the resilient agricultural systems program will have potential communitywide benefits. These include research on bioremediation and waste-water management, reduced pesticide risk, and implications of climate change for agricultural production and regional resource use.

Community safety, training and communications

Under its Human Capital, Communications and Information Systems Program RIRDC manages and supports a major collaborative research effort that considers many aspects of rural community occupational health and safety. Projects range from development of effective farm safety courses to investigating the causes of traumatic deaths in rural areas.

In addition, RIRDC supports a program of rural leadership training and university scholarships, which focus on building the stock of human capital available to address problems facing the rural sector. This also contains some specific focus on leadership development activities for rural women and youth.

Projects on information technology continue to look at the importance and implications of developments in communications services for rural communities and their effective links with urban areas and the global economy.

The impacts of all of these research activities have significant implications and benefits for the wider Australian community.