Centre for Crop Science

Better understanding plants’ complex environmental and food-producing roles is the focus of a new global research program being led by The University of Queensland.

What we farm, how we farm, where we farm and even what we have known for eons as food, is changing. Agriculture, globally, is on the cusp of its next technology revolution. It is an exciting and challenging time and one that Queensland and Australia have been positioned to drive and to profit from because of an historic, strategic, decision made a decade ago.

Rainfall during August was average for the entire winter cropping region of the state. Furthermore, rainfall during to April to August was below average across most of the cropping region and resulted in limited planting opportunities during the conclusion of the traditional sowing window period.

Robots working in abattoirs, sky-high vertical farms, more gene-edited foods in our supermarkets and automated farming systems could all help guarantee food supply in the next pandemic.

Barley is known as a fairly competitive crop, but not all genotypes are equal when it comes to weed suppression and weed tolerance.