August 2018 - MALDI-ID

New research for production of chickpeas

31/08/2018

A multi-nation research collaboration is hoping to unlock valuable new opportunities for the production of chickpeas in Australia.

Researchers supported by GRDC have collected and multiplied wild chickpea species located in the Middle East to build a special genetic resource from which important traits are being screened.

Researches are hoping for a possible incorporation into a new disease-resistant, stress-tolerant, high-yielding varieties for Australian growers.

Dr Francis Ogbonnaya, GRDC pulses and oilseeds manager, says the research is likely to lead to an expansion of Australia’s chickpea production area, particularly in regions where opportunities to grow chickpeas have been limited due to the availability of lines tolerant to constraints such as acidic soils, abiotic stresses and disease stresses.

Chickpeas are Australia’s most valuable cash crop

Dr Ogbonnaya explains the importance of chickpeas in Australia, “…they play an important role in terms of overall optimisation and sustainability of our farming systems.”

“They act as a break crop for cereal rotations, they add nitrogen to the soil, assist with weed control and add market diversity.”

The new research aims to help farmers who have previously had difficulty growing chickpeas due to the narrow genetic base of the domesticated chickpea.

Growth for WA

In Western Australia 2017, only 5000 hectares were planted to chickpeas because of the lack of chickpeas adapted to acidic soils.

“If growers had access to varieties with acid tolerance – and evidence is showing those traits exist in the wild material we now have available – the area planted to chickpeas in the west could potentially grow to about 500,000 hectares. Growers would have a valuable break-crop alternative to lupins.”

Wild Genetic Material

CSIRO ecophysiologist, Dr Jens Berger, says

“I am optimistic that we captured the adaptive diversity needed to improve the performance of cultivated species.”

The wild genetic material is being screened for traits such as tolerance to acidic soils, drought, heat and cold, water use efficiency and resistance to diseases such as ascochyta blight, Phytophthora root rot and root lesion nematodes.

Participating in the work are several of GRDC’s Australian research partners including the Centre for Crop and Disease Management; Murdoch University.

Strong mung bean season thanks to demand from China and Vietnam

23/08/2018

A strong mung bean season in Australia has paved the way for crops to get close to average yields.

Thanks to strong demand from China and Vietnam, mung bean prices have avoided the India-inspired slump that hit the rest of the pulse market.

Mark Schmidt, Australian Mungbean Association president, said there would be an estimated total production between 80, 90,000 tonnes now that harvest has finished.

This is above the five-year average to 2016 of 76,000 tonnes.

Mark Schmidt says:

“The production could have been higher given the better opening rain, but it has not been a bad season for mung bean growers.”

“Most growers have had better than average quality and the price went up towards the end of the season which is a good thing both for this crop.”

Mr Schmidt said the prices for legumes have increased even with India taking less than 5 percent of total exports this year. Typically, India accounts for between 30-50 percent of Australia’s mungbean exports.

“We have been lucky there have been production shortfalls in places like Vietnam and China and they are looking for imports.”

Image source: mungbean.org.au/

Strong demand in China and Vietnam

Much different to other pulse crops, where India and other destinations command the market, Mr Schmidt said there was a high East Asian demand for mungbeans which were used to make products including cellophane noodles, treasured in Chinese and Vietnamese cooking.

Demand from Vietnam and China has helped push the prices for top quality, processing mungbeans to around $1250 a tonne, while manufacturing grade beans are currently selling for around $1050/t.

“Prices have risen around $150/t since the crop was planted,” Mr Schmidt said.

According to Wayne Newton, AgForce grains section president, growers were reporting a higher percentage than usual of top quality beans thanks to a drier season.

“It’s good that we have the chance to access high-value markets and yields, generally between two to three tonnes a hectare, were not too bad in the end either.”

Mr Schmidt said most of this year’s mungbeans had been sold.

“There is not a lot in surplus which is a good sign for pricing for next season.”

Read our recent post on ‘Optimising Mungbean Yields’ project which is set to better predict what determines mungbean yield in Australia.

Climate change: Planning for future farming

16/08/2018

Climate change is causing everyone to plan ahead for the future.

Experimenting with new ideas is important so we can better understand what will work in the future.

For decades farmers have been dealing with heat waves, flooding, droughts and extreme colds. We can only expect these issues to continue into the future.

Paul Blackwell, retired from CSIRO and DAFWA, has a few suggestions and guidelines that may work for farmers in a Controlled Traffic Farming (CFA) framework.

Heat Stress

Low rainfall crops can be diminished by approximately one-third for every degree above 35 degrees per day of flowering.

The following strategies may help reduce heat stress:

By orientating the rows and tramlines north-south or NW-SE you can allow more of the afternoon’s sun between the rows and not on the crop.
Burying topsoil and appropriate organic matter in the subsoil can help cool the heads of flowering crops and pastures by encouraging root density in the subsoil.

Cold Stress (radiation frost)

It may be possible to increase canopy temperature on cold nights (following sunny afternoons) if sunlight can heat the soil between rows and be released to warm the crop later at night. Guidelines of north-south to NW-SE orientations, wide rows and stubble apply.

Extreme Dry (after summer rain)

Verified by good soil modelling and experimental investigations by The University of Western Australia, Paul Blackwell explains the importance of moisture;

“Keep the subsoil moisture in better with a less compact profile to wick away the moisture and protective stubble to minimise evaporation. Do early sowing between or next to rows to help conserve that benefit. Also, employ dry ridges of non-wetting sand between rows to further lower summer evaporation rates by using smart furrow sowing.”

Extreme Wet

Apply safe surface drainage with peak stubble levels,
Use slow overland flow along tramlines
Furrows with less than 3 percent slope
Create drive-through drains in complex slope systems for safer water disposal.

These ideas have been backed by farmers and consultants in the southern WA Wheatbelt.

Some of these ideas are being tried at Anthill Farm, Dartmoor.

Image source: farmweekly.com.au

Source: Farm Weekly

Feature image source: abc.net.au

Wheat variety should be carefully selected after big chickpea years

09/08/2018

An accumulation of root lesion nematode populations under heavy and successive chickpea plantings is pushing farmers to make sure their rotations include resistant crops, which will lower the risk of wheat yield losses.

2016 and 2017 were Australia’s largest ever chickpea plantings and has allowed a growth surge of the Pratylenchus thornei root nematode (RLN), commonly found in Queensland and NSW.

Although damaging populations of the parasite can affect wheat yields by up to 80 percent, nematologist Kirsty Owen, University of Queensland, says farmers can follow some steps to reduce impact.

Owen explains that increasing the number of resistant crops in the cropping sequence is the only way to reduce populations.

“One approach is to pick wheat varieties that are tolerant and have the highest level of resistance available to P.thonei because it is when P.thornei populations are reduced to very low levels that crop variety choice is expanded and farm profits can be maximised.”

Kirsty Owen continues to explain that growing chickpeas will increase the populations of P.thornei, which will infest following crops but chickpea varieties may not always suffer yield loss.

The volume of wheat yield loss by P.thornei depends on the population at the time of planting and the tolerance of the wheat variety sown.

Image source: Unsplash.com

A population of two P.thornei to one gram of soil is assumed damaging and will limit the number of varieties and crop types that are likely to be profitable, particularly in the northern region.

“You will have fewer choices in future seasons if the P.thornei population gets to damaging levels.”

P.thornei feeds on and reproduces in the roots of plants, causing yield loss because it restricts plants’ ability to take up water and nutrients.

**There is currently no registered chemical that can reduce P.thornei populations.**

Experiments by the crop nematology team at Formartin, on the Darling Downs, tested the tolerance and resistance of chickpea varieties compared to wheat varieties.

During 2015-16, varieties or advanced lines of chickpeas were planted into plots with high or low P.thornei populations, prepared the year earlier by growing a moderately resistant wheat variety and a susceptible wheat variety.

The average (2015-16) yield for all chickpea varieties at 2.59t/ha was 6.5 percent lower on the high P.thornei populations. There were no major differences detected between varieties.

Owen says that “the take-home message is that chickpeas are generally moderately tolerant to P.thornei”

After harvest P.thornei populations increased by 1.3 to 4.3 times under chickpeas and ten times the amount under Strzelecki wheat when compared with the population of the moderately-resistant wheat control.

Image source: Unsplash.com

Source: GRDC

New research to better predict mungbean yield

02/08/2018

A new GRDC research investment, the ‘Optimising Mungbean Yields’ project, is set to better predict what determines mungbean yield in Australia.

Dr Marisa Collins from the University of Queensland will lead the research which aims to benchmark yield and potential drivers of mungbean yield in double-cropping and in fallows.

Mungbeans are the largest summer pulse crop in Australia, but there are still some unknowns about what determines their yield.

Dr Collins will focus the research on factors including soil nutrition and starting water, nematode pressure, rainfall and temperature, and flower-to-pod radio.

Even with good conditions, Mungbeans can return poor yields. Collins explains that understanding what drives yield is an issue she hopes to achieve.

The project will include agronomists, researchers and leading growers of mungbeans.

The initial stages of the project are being trialled on 12 private farms in Queensland, 18 on Darling Downs, and 12 in northern NSW.

Dr Collins said:

“We want to learn from growers, as well as get some hard data around observations, to provide some metrics around what yields can be expected.”

The initial trials have also included the Australian Mungbean Association (AMA) who are helping to manage and monitor the crops.

Mungbeans generally fix their own nitrogen

Growers are wanting to know if they should be fertilising mungbeans as they would any other summer crop.

There is still confusion about the impact on yield if mungbeans are planted in paddocks that were prepared for cotton or sorghum with nitrogen applied in September.

The project helps to provide better answers to growers who want to know what would happen to their crops if they were to double-crop them or plant them into fallow.

‘Optimising Mungbean Yield’ plans to raise the average national yield to two tonnes per hectare from 0.9t/ha – news which has been welcomed by AMA.

AMA president, Mark Schmid, hopes that the data collected will help farmers grow the best crop they possibly can.

“It’s the best summer legume we’ve got… We’re trying to make sure people making decisions about crops are trained correctly…The data our industry will get from ‘Optimising Mungbean Yields’ project will help us to achieve that.”

Image courtesy of Farm Weekly.