Pulses

Accelerating genetic gain in grain crops will be the subject of a 15-million dollar International Research Training Group (IRTG) funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in association with The University of Queensland.

Pigeonpea might not be well known in Australia, but there are more than a billion people in Asia and Africa who eat this dried grain legume in a variety of dishes, and global demand is high.

Annual ryegrass is becoming increasingly prevalent in the northern cropping region, and many populations already have a high level of resistance to the major Group B and Group A herbicides registered for use in chickpea crops.

The world-first speed breeding technique was developed by scientists at the University of Queensland's alliance for agriculture and food innovation (QAAFI), who use light and temperature-controlled greenhouses to accelerate plant growth and deliver more tolerant crops.

QAAFI forges strategic industry partnerships to tackle local and global challenges in tropical and sub-tropical agriculture and food production. We
work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on key projects to boost food and nutrition security in tropics and sub-tropics.

The higher rainfall across many grain growing regions in 2016 has provided farmers with more opportunities for summer cropping. But, weeds also stand to gain from the additional soil moisture, putting additional pressure on summer fallow spraying programs.

Queensland Pulse Agronomy Initiative project seeks to increase the reliability and yield of summer and winter pulses. View the video here.

In the International Year of Pulses, scientists are aiming to double the area in Queensland’s tropics and subtropics sown to these healthy, and often very profitable, legume crops.

Grower Wade Bidstrup realised the true potential of mungbeans after treating them as a ‘real’ crop and applying specific research-based agronomy.