 |
Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation |
Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation
|| Home || Search || Contact ||
Shaping the Future is
the corporate newsletter of RIRDC. It is distributed quarterly by direct
mail to over 4,000 researchers, industry, government, farmers, libraries
and consultants. Contributions are welcome.
Phone (02) 6272 4539,
Fax (02) 6272 5877, Editor: Tim Evans, ph (02) 6272 4735. email:
time@rirdc.gov.au
In this issue (click on the title for full article):
A word from the MD
Importance of research mix
First Rural Women’s
Awards a Success
Twenty one of Australia’s most talented and capable rural women
converged on Canberra in March for the finale of the Rural Industries Research
and Development Corporation Rural Women’s Award 2000. Here are the winners.
‘RIRDC On-line’
RIRDC on-line is a new newsletter delivering the latest R&D information
from RIRDC direct to your desk top.
Regional Australia
forgotten by internet designers
Regional Australia is being sold short by Internet web site designers
who are creating barriers and holding back widespread
www.rirdc.gov Now
with E-shop
Keep an eye out for our new electronic bookshop. As we went to press
the shop was undergoing final testing.
Insite links farmers
to information
A new website, dedicated to agricultural extension has been launched
by the Kondinin Group.
Competition
to turn research into business
RIRDC will launch a competition in May encouraging researchers to convert
their science into viable business propositions.
New industries
learning more than variety
I nvestment in innovation and over-delivery of customer expectations
were the competitive advantages needed by new enterprises to succeed, according
to participants in a recent intensive tour of Northern Hemisphere
Japanese ginger
- adds spice to export mix
Myoga or Japanese ginger, is a traditional Japanese vegetable which
now has good prospects in Australia with the establishment of the first
commercial myoga production unit, at Albion Park in New South Wales.
Bacterial ‘missiles’
could replace antibiotics for animals
Small proteins that bacteria use like missiles to fight off competing
bacteria could one day be used as an alternative to antibiotics to treat
animal diseases.
The "PEARL” of millets
- Cheaper poultry feed
A project that started as a search for better nutritional foods for
poultry could end with an important new grain industry for Australia, and
cheaper poultry products.
OPTIONS - The Series
Giving farmers options in their business is one of RIRDC’s primary
aims to ensure prosperity in rural industries.
Leaders required
for new program
H ighly motivated men and women are invited to apply for Course 8 of
the Australian Rural Leadership Program to be conducted from April
2001 to September 2002.
Biomass - Research
sparks bright future for bio-energy
Australia’s move towards renewable energy resources will take a step
forward, with the development of several nation-wide initiatives for biomass
energy systems.
Benchmarking
review highlights deficiencies
A review of Australian rural benchmarking studies has found they may
lack impact if no follow-up at the farm level is taken.
The
bookshop
View and purchase them through our online
catalogue. Many full reports are also available free as downloadable
pdf, rtf and MSWord6 documents.
First
Rural Women's Awards a Success
Twenty one of Australia's most
talented and capable rural women converged on Canberra in March for the
finale of the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation Rural
Women's Award 2000.
The women were State and Territory winners and finalists in the 2000 Award and were in Canberra to participate in the three-day National Leadership Seminar.
With the seminar, the outstanding highlight of the Award was a bursary of up to $20,000 for each of the seven State and Territory winners, presented by Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Warren Truss on March 8 to coincide with International Women's Day.
The Bursary will assist in fulfilling each winner's personal vision for agriculture and help build on their leadership and business skills so they are equipped to play a greater role in the future of rural Australia.
For Queensland's Annie Pfeffer and WA's Mary Nenke, the award meant the opportunity to promote their emerging industries – Sunflower oil and Yabbies.
“The Award has offered me the opportunity to promote my industry as well as highlight the role rural women play in agriculture. Developing the project plan which included a budget, made me really think about the different possibilities and associated costs and benefits of such a project. I had to set realistic goals and devise ways of achieving these goals,” Annie said.
“I can not overstate the importance of finalists coming together in Canberra for the presentations and the networking that resulted from the three days. It introduced me to a number of new industries as well as different points of view across all areas of agriculture. The theme from all participants was the same. We all had a vision for agriculture and our families and we were driven by passion.”
Mary said the Award had already been beneficial in attracting positive attention to her industry and she would use the bursary to research new areas of aquaculture in the US.
“It excites me to be given the opportunity to help others to see rural Australia positively and full of opportunities for those who dare to have a dream-who dare to follow their vision and make rural Australia a better place to live.”
The Award was run in partnership with the State
and Territory Departments' of Primary Industries who through the SCARM
Rural Women's Working Group coordinated the Award at a state level.
| Northern
Territory -
Queensland - Victoria - South Australia - Tasmania - Western Australia - New South Wales - |
Sue
Wainwright
Annie Pfeffer Rowena Doyle Carol Schofield Anne Taylor Mary Nenke Diana Gibbs |
More
information:
Edwina
Clowes, National Coordinator
Phone:
07 5476 1211
Or
visit www.ruralwomensaward.gov.au
Last month we gathered 21 very talented women
in Canberra for the three day Rural Women of the Year leadership seminar.
The intensive program was very well received
and along with a bursary for further individual work, will set these women
in very good stead to play major roles in the continuing development of
rural Australia.
Unfortunately not all appreciated our reasons for the Awards. One major rural paper in particular took a myopic view of the awards gender-base rather than the underlying program identifying and promoting excellence in agriculture.
But rather than dwelling on their view, it opens the way to discuss the many varied ways R and D Corporations, and RIRDC in particular, provide avenues for different types of research and, more importantly the results of the research.
RIRDC has a broad charter which allows us to develop
new industries for Australian agriculture, whilst supporting smaller established
areas and undertaking the search for excellence in human capital, communications
and global competitiveness.
Of all these, the development of human capital
takes on added importance. Without leaders and champions, our industries
will not prosper no matter what research is conducted.
Traditional research has allowed rural Australia to push the barriers with new varieties, agricultural systems and methods, and when combined with broader research agriculture is best served.
RIRDC supports many initiatives in human capital, where a need has been identified. In 1992 the Corporation was the catalyst which built the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation. Almost a decade later 160 people have graduated and added their skills to the pool of talent in rural Australia.
In the case of the Women's Awards, a major research project completed in 1997 showed that a forum was needed to help harness the valuable contribution of women in agriculture. This took place in the form of the three-day seminar and bursary contributions.
Unseen is RIRDC's contribution to education, with the awarding of post-graduate scholarships each year to ensure high quality people are retained in rural industries. Last year RIRDC contributed more than $350,000 across eight different sub-program areas.
This month a delegation has travelled throughout the US and Europe observing new industries and opportunities. Their findings will be a great source of information for many people in developing areas of agriculture.
Agriculture has enormous capital in the many talented
people who provide a resource – promoting and nurturing will provide the
impetus for agriculture to continue in it search for excellence.
Emailed monthly RIRDC On-line details new reports, funding initiatives and the latest issues from our 20 sub-program areas.
Theses stories are short and to the point, concentrating on innovative research and it's impact. Most are linked to our website for more information, including contacts for each researcher.
If you'd like to receive RIRDC On-line each month, send your name and email to the editor, Tim Evans at time@rirdc.gov.au
In a report for RIRDC, communications specialist Jim Groves found content providers ignored issues like poor infrastructure and web overload when designing sites, drastically reducing their impact in regional areas.
“The reality is that the quality of web site design from an accessibility point of view is highly variable,” Mr Groves says.
“Consequently, too many content providers are palpably failing in their responsibilities to rural and remote Internet users and others for that matter.
“The Internet has the potential to transform the economic and social prospects of Australians living in rural and remote areas, but won't reach its potential until the limitations of living in regional Australia are taken into account by the people attempting to utilise it.”
Mr Groves highlighted three major areas of concern, with sites:
“And this is often in areas where the timed cost of connection is much higher than the city, yet it is either ignored or not recognised by designers and companies who use those designs.”
Mr Groves said the most public investigation of rural Internet sites had been published in RIRDC's book The Australian Farmers Guide to the Internet which only ranked two of more than 500 sites with the top score of four stars for content and 'Net appeal, and had features like below-average file sizes, a descriptive title and a site-specific search engine.
The full report, Web Sites for Rural Australia Designing for Accessibility, is available from the RIRDC website at http://www.rirdc.gov.au/reports/Index2.htm#humcap
More than 450 research publications will be available for secure online purchase from the new e-shop, which uses the industry standard Camtech secure gateway system endorsed by most of Australia's largest banks and online retailers.
The gateway provides 'real-time' processing , authentication and funds transfer and is the only system with endorsement of the major institutions within the Australian Banking Network.
Customers can view all research reports alphabetically, under program headings or search by title, author or keywords. The site automatically calculates any postage and handling charges and provides currency exchange facilities for international visitors to the site.
The new RIRDC e-shop follows a year of successful online selling through CSIRO Publishing where RIRDC publications will continue to be available.
Kondinin Insite was produced with support from RIRDC and offers farmers the ability to quickly source information relevant to Australian agriculture.
Kondinin Group's Manager – Information, Ruth McIntyre explained that farmers will now have the ability to quickly access customised information to assist in on-farm decision making.
“Kondinin Insite is an innovation in Australian agriculture and reflects the increasing numbers of rural internet users and their demand for high quality information that is relevant to their individual farming enterprise.
“The web site offers farmers a database of over 5000 of the Kondinin Group's articles, as well as the tools to search the net through the Farmwide developed search engine, agSearch.”
“Farmers will quickly see the benefits of using
Kondinin Insite when they realise they are able to get relevant information
without having to sift through unrelated sites that often get included
in web searches.”
Insite can be found at www.insite.kondinin.com.au
The RIRDC Business Plan 2000 Competition offers $200,000 in prize money and is open to any organisation or individual involved with a project funded by the Corporation in the past decade.
Managing director, Peter Core, said the competition was designed to turn valuable research and development into business investments that will benefit the Australian rural sector.
“The Competition offers researchers an opportunity to move towards commercialisation by developing a professional business plan that could transfer a worthy scientific project into a realistic business endeavour,” Mr Core said.
“The generous cash awards will assist development of the business proposition and finalists will interact with business leaders and financiers to develop their ideas.”
“RIRDC is confident the Competition will spark new levels of creativity, ingenuity and cooperation between the agribusiness sectors and develop a keener understanding by researchers of the commercial needs of users of their research outcomes.”
“The aim is to encourage entrepreneurial literacy and commercial partnerships in the research community and make research more accessible and relevant to rural Australia.”
“RIRDC encourages researchers to accept the challenge to step outside their familiar environment to look for the unrealised value in their research, and to make the effort to communicate that value in a compelling and succinct way,” Mr Core said.
The RIRDC Business Plan 2000 Competition celebrates a decade of research funding by RIRDC and is open to anyone who has conducted RIRDC funded research since the Corporation was established in July 1990.
Ten entries selected from the first round of applications will each receive up to $10,000 to assist development of a comprehensive Business Plan which will be submitted for final judging. The winning Business Plan will receive a prize of an additional $50,000 to assist in further business development, while the two runners-up will each receive $25,000 to assist with their business development.
The closing date for applications in Round One of the RIRDC Business Plan 2000 Competition is 31 July 2000. Round Two participants will be nominated by 25 August and the winners will be announced on 24 November.
Further information on the RIRDC Business Plan 2000 Competition and an application form are available on the web site rirdc.gov.au/business plan or phone the coordinator on 0417 953 957.
The Innovating Australia 2000 research tour was an initiative of the New Industries Program of Agriculture Western Australia in cooperation with RIRDC, the New Industries Food and Fibre Program from AFFA, and the state agency new industry programs from Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.
The study group included farmers, consultants, department staff and scientists working in the new industry development field.
During April the group visited over 40 public and private sector companies and universities spanning the Middle East, northern Europe and North America which were carefully selected for their track record in the areas of innovation, change and application of technology to agriculture.
Chairman of the New Industries AGWEST Partnership Group, Peter Cooke, said the study tour found that innovation occured as a response to a challenge, problem, issue or opportunity with the stimulus for change including competitors moving in on price, succession issues, changing consumer preferences or general cost.
“Innovation is not just the latest and greatest widget, more often it is a range of activities that allow a company to capitalise on a recognised competitive advantage,” Mr Cooke said.
“The consumer influence is paramount, which successful innovators realise and they are also aware that the period between idea conception and commercial delivery is getting shorter in a highly competitive global environment.
“Achieving integration within the company structure is one of the internal drivers of innovation,” he said.
“Money is often not an issue in the early development stages of innovation, however there is a need to conduct proper business planning including risk assessment.
“Strategic partnerships and alliances, often with competitors, are critical to the success of innovative activity, and if anything businesses need to over-deliver on customer expectations,” Mr Cooke said.
The information, lessons and practical application from the Innovating Australia 2000 research tour will be outlined in a series of workshops to be delivered in each participating State during May and June.
The commercial unit comes 10 years after executives of the Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd met Tasmanian farmers Peter Shelley and Richard Warner with a proposal to produce myoga in Australia.
Australia was identified as having a comparative advantage in myoga production due to the availability of suitable climatic conditions and the ability to supply myoga flower buds to Japan during the 'out of season' months.
The Japanese executives who first introduced the opportunity of myoga production in Australia are now acting as the importer in Japan.
Initially 20 plants were selected from Japanese clonal material and imported to Tasmania in 1990. In 1994, a RIRDC supported research project commenced which included the University of Tasmania and industry, now incorporated as Agrilink Asia Pacific Pty Ltd.
Myoga is the most cold tolerant species of the ginger family and is widely cultivated throughout Japan. It is a typical ginger plant with a thick rhizomatous but inedible rootstock. Myoga is grown for spring shoots, or more commonly, for sterile flower buds produced during summer and autumn.
Under Australian conditions, myoga pseudostem growth sunburns without shading. To grow the crop successfully myoga should be planted under 30% to 50% shadecloth. The flower buds are produced at ground level from underground rhizomes during summer and autumn.
A protocol has now been established for production of Australian myoga, including cultural aspects such as site, soil types, shade, mulch and irrigation requirements as well as the optimum size of rhizome to plant and planting date, pre treatment of rhizomes and density of initial plantings. The research project also undertook numerous studies which increased knowledge of the plants morphological characteristics and physiological responses.
Since 1994, plants have been observed to produce flower buds which have been assessed as acceptable quality by Japanese importers and local Japanese restaurants.
The RIRDC supported research program
was completed at the end of June 1999 which coincided with the decision
to establish the first commercial myoga production unit with the construction
of a shade house and associated facilities at Albion
Park.This decision followed the
successful adoption of RIRDC supported research findings in trials conducted
at Albion Park during the 1998/99 season.
The key marketing objective is to export Australian grown myoga to Japan in the 'out of season' months of January to April when local Japanese supply is limited to forced myoga production. Successful trial shipments have been made and exports of the first commercial quantities commenced in February 2000.
More information: Professor Rob
Clarke, University of Tasmania,
03 6226 2619 & Richard Warner,
03 62612031
CSIRO Animal Health has started two research projects on the proteins, called bacteriocins, with the aim of identifying some that will kill disease-causing bacteria in chickens and pigs. The research is being part-funded by RIRDC's Chickenmeat program.
CSIRO Animal Health Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics Program Manager, Dr Adrian Hodgson, says researchers in other organisations have looked at the use of bacteriocins to create safe food packaging and assist in food preservation.
“This is the first time that the use of bacteriocins to fight disease will be researched. If we are successful, we will have an alternative to antibiotics for at least some animal diseases,” says Dr Hodgson.
Dr Hodgson says the major advantage of using bacteriocins in this way is that it will reduce the risk of human pathogens becoming resistant to antibiotics.
Bacteriocins will also be quickly
broken down by animals, so that there will be no residues in meat.
“Our strategy will be to first
identify known bacteriocins that are useful in fighting off bacterial diseases
of pigs and chickens.
We will then investigate how these
could be delivered to treat or even prevent these diseases,” he says.
Another aim of the research projects will be to consider how to reduce the risk of bacteria developing resistance against bacteriocins.
More information:
Vivien Kite,
RIRDC Chickenmeat Research Manager,
Phone: 02
9929 4077
Email: vivien.kite@chicken.org.au
Pearl millet has been identified as a possible feedstuff that has nutritive value greater than sorghum, and is suitable to grow in semi-arid environments where grain-growers have traditionally had little crop choice.
The results come from RIRDC backed research by Danny Singh from the Queensland Poultry Research and Development Centre, and will be used in a $250,000 project to develop a commercial pearl millet industry in Australia.
Laboratory analysis and feeding trials demonstrated that the two cultivars of pearl millet, Katherine and Siberian, are superior in nutritive value than sorghum. Both varieties contained higher levels of protein, fat and crude fibre than sorghum while amino acid digestibilities were generally similar.
Katherine pearl millet was the better of the two varieties and had an amino acid profile superior to sorghum, containing twice as much lysine, methionine and tryptophan. The AME content of Katherine was more than 1 megajoule higher than sorghum.
Levels of Katherine pearl millet up to 600g/kg were fed to layers in nutritionally similar diets with no effect on egg production, feed conversion, egg weight, egg mass, egg specific gravity and final bird body weight compared to a sorghum/wheat-based control diet.
The crop could be suitable as an alternative to sorghum for dryland summer cropping in Queensland. It is adapted to semi-arid environments with low fertility and will out-yield sorghum in sandy, well-drained soils with low rainfall.
It has a shorter crop growth duration and better heat tolerance, which would allow for spring planting. Overseas breeding programs have produced both hybrids and open-pollinated varieties that are highly adapted to similar soils and environments to those in Central and South-west Queensland.
More
information:
Irene
Gorman, RIRDC Egg Industry Research Manager, 02 9570 9222
Over the next two years, the Corporation and its researchers will develop a series of options papers to assist family farms in making decisions concerning growth, diversity, risk management, ownership and the transfer of management.
“The Australian farming landscape is continually changing in light of new products, globalisation of markets, deregulation and other things which impact on agriculture,” says Roslyn Prinsley, General Manager – Research.
“This series of research projects will review areas where farmers have options to alter their management and ownership processes to benefit them and agriculture in general.”
The result will be short, concise and practical farmer reports which can be used as extension documents and will comprise sections of a larger report on Farmer Options.
Each report will need to identify the information required to make a decision regarding a particular option and each area of the
Options Report will be summarised by a checklist of the questions a farmer should ask before deciding on a particular option.
“The research programs will be based on case study research. Each research project will identify the key success factors of case studies,” Dr Prinsley said.
“In this way each farmer report will be informative and deliver research results. This means that research results will be relevant, simple and digestible by farmers across of a range of industries, adding value to the decisions that they will make.”
More information:
Roslyn Prinsley,
Research
Manager, Phone: 02 6271 4033
Fax: 02 6272
5877, Email: roslynp@rirdc.gov.au
The checklist will need to consider:
| Ö | Is the option environmentally feasible? |
| Ö | Is the option socially acceptable? |
| Ö | Is the option economically and/orfinancially feasible? |
| Ö | Will the option deal with the cause of problems or just the effects? |
| Ö | What risks are involved? |
| Ö | What is our intuition telling us about this option? |
| Ö | How can we monitor if the option is successful? |
| Ö | What do we need to measure? |
Candidates should be involved in industry and/or community affairs and have the potential to lead at regional, state and national levels both within and outside the industry.
The program has been running since 1992 with RIRDC support, and has had 160 graduates with about 60 more in the process of finishing.
Australian Rural Leadership Foundation Executive Director, Mike Beckingham, said: “This is an opportunity to undertake a unique national leadership development program along with leaders from rural and related sectors. This would include agriculture, agribusiness, indigenous affairs, rural tourism, regional communities, rural finance, manufacturing, fishing, forestry, communications, industrial relations and policy making.”
The 'hands-on' Program is conducted over 60 days in two years, during which participants attend seven sessions of one and two weeks duration held in various locations around Australia and overseas.
The curriculum builds on participants' leadership capabilities, provides an understanding of national and international environment and develops essential networks.
Applications close on 31 July 2000. Selected participants are required to contribute $2,000 to the cost of their involvement in the Program. The balance is funded through scholarships provided by sponsors.
More information: see the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation's website at www.rural-leaders.com.au. For application forms contact the Foundation's office by email at arlp@interact.net.au or phone 02 6281 0680.
Researchers and industry experts met in Canberra earlier this year to plan the development of a sustainable biomass resource in tandem with suitable bio-energy technology, which has the potential to replace a large proportion of fossil fuels and deliver a productive industry to rural Australia.
Biomass is the residues from trees, crops and agricultural and forestry wastes used to make fuels, chemicals and electricity.
“Currently there are a number of research projects, in the public and private sector, looking into different aspects of the biomass industry,” RIRDC General Manager – Research Dr Roslyn Prinsley said.
“We are proposing new projects which will build on the current work and move towards outcomes that will foster industry development.
“Bio-energy is an exciting development for Australian industry, and especially agriculture, which will benefit from the introduction of new uses for wastes and specialist tree planting programs.
“The development of a biomass industry in Australia has the obvious benefits of reducing fossil fuel usage and greenhouse emissions, but has added environmental benefits for Australia's agricultural regions suffering damage from salinity, acidity and erosion,” Dr Prinsley says.
“To meet demand for biomass products, there will need to be increased tree planting that will help halt the salt-led destruction of farm land while providing a commercial benefit to farmers.
“The investment made now in research is expected to pay big dividends right across Australia.”
More information: Roslyn Prinsley, RIRDC General Manager – Research. Ph. 02 6271 4033, Fax: 02 6272 5877 Email: roslynp@rirdc.gov.au
Benchmarking review highlights deficiencies
A review of Australian rural benchmarking studies has found they may lack impact if no follow-up at the farm level is taken.
The report studied 66 benchmarking programs over a wide range of agricultural industries and found plenty of benchmarking programs readily generate data, but there was generally a lack of processes to support farm business managers to fully understand the stories and meanings behind the numbers. There also was a lack of a supportive decision-making system to ensure 'better' information actually results in 'better' decision-making.
The review – carried out by Alison Worsley and Mark Gardner – looked at the programs and activities operating under the benchmarking umbrella – across all major Australian rural industries
Client follow-up after a benchmarking report also was assessed. This sought to identify those programs where a solid process existed for helping farmers use the benchmarking data to make better farm management decisions.
The report has led to a new RIRDC project that will develop a common set of measurements and terminology for use in rural benchmarking studies so that future studies and work already done might be incorporated into a national database.
This research is expected to start mid-year.
As well as revealing a common theme that data from benchmarking was not being adequately used by farmers in decision-making, the review highlighted:
1. failure by extension personnel and benchmark providers to provide adequate support and guidance so farmers could use benchmark data fully to improve profitability and sustainability
2. a need to develop clear criteria for what constitutes a benchmarking activity, and what distinguishes it from the range of activities currently operating under this umbrella; and
3. the need to standardise benchmarks and benchmark terminology for greater 'meaning' behind figures across programs and regions.
More information: The report Rural Benchmarking Programs - A Review (SR 74) is available free from RIRDC by phoning 02 6272 4819 or as a dowloadable pdf file from the RIRDC site at http://www.rirdc.gov.au/pub/shortreps/sr74.pdf.
RIRDC Bookshop
RIRDC makes its research findings available through an active publishing
program. There are more than 450 publications available from RIRDC. View
and purchase them through our online
catalogue.
Many full reports are also available free as downloadable pdf, rtf and MSWord6 documents.
Many reports have been summarised in free RIRDC "Short
Reports".
Last updated: 2 May 2000
Copyright © RIRDC
http://www.rirdc.gov.au/pub/autumn00.html