Congratulations to the below list of recipients for Grower Group Research and Development (R&D) Grants Round Two, part of the Agriculture Sciences Research and Development Fund, made possible by Royalites for Regions Investment.
Grower Group Research and Development (R&D) Grants Round Two
Successful Recipients
| Organisation | Project Title | Project Description | Grant (Ex Co-Contribution) |
| Northern Australia Crop Research Alliance | Improving Current and Developing New Crops for Northern Agriculture | Northern Australia Crop Research Alliance with collaborators will develop genetics most suited to the production system and climate of the Ord valley for chickpea, corn, chia, quinoa and teff. The project targets three areas of crop R&D (1) crop genetics; (2) crop agronomy; (3) cropping system – To develop crops to deliver export market preferred products. | $500k |
| Stirlings to Coast Farmers | Developing a multi-purpose grain processing co operative in the great southern agricultural region | Stirling to Coast Farmers with collaborators will determine the feasibility of establishing a new farmer-owned grain processing co-operative in the Great Southern region. Having the capacity and infrastructure to process grain into food or animal feed opens up new higher- value markets. | $495k |
| Pork Innovation WA | Pork Raised Without Antibiotics: New Opportunities for WA’s Pork Industry | Pork Innovation WA with collaborators will deliver the targeted R&D required to determine the feasibility of producing pork raised without antibiotics under Western Australian conditions to service a small but fast growing high value market seeking meat with a more defined provenance value. | $187k |
| Fruit West Cooperative | Successfully Introducing Western Australia’s Bravo™ Apple to the World | Fruit West Cooperative with collaborators will build upon the global popularity of the Pink Lady apple bred by DAFWA scientists that currently commands a $1.5 billion market globally. The grant will seek to verify that the new premium Bravo™ apple has the desired characteristics to succeed. | $380k |
| WA Farmers | Industry standards for optimising storage and supply volume of WA mono-floral honey | WA Farmers with collaborators will increase production of monofloral honey by optimal use of localities, hive placement and bee nutrition. Additionally WA farmes and collaborators will establish best practice storage management contingencies and standards suitable for therapeutic and medicinal use of honey. | $500k |
| Ord River Cooperative (ORDCO) | Ord River Irrigation Area Pulse Project Stage 2 | Ord River Cooperative with collaborator will focus on efficient primary and value-added processing close to production areas, directly informed by and linked to markets, and delivered at scale. ORDCO's Stage 2 Pulse will project will expand on the findings of the GGRD Round 1-funded project [1] to address food safety and market requirements for value-added pulse products for import replacement and export markets. | $180k |
| South East Premium Wheatgrowers Association | A change of PASE | South East Premium Wheatgrowers Association will establish an integrated collaboration of supply chain participants including direct interaction with export logistics service providers and international end users.
Supply chain study, pulse viability analysis for agronomic and economic adoption, market investigation and end user relationships will be analysed. | $498k |
| WA Citrus | Developing new market-focused products for WA citrus fruit in export markets | WA Citrus with collaborators will improve exports by focusing on market preferred products, in-market business partners and production processes. It will build on existing navel orange exports to 5 Asian markets and one season of producer benchmarking. | $500k |
| Gascoyne Catchments Group | Bullseye: Central and southern rangelands cattle predictability hitting the supply chain specifications | Gascoyne Catchment Group with collaborators will catalyse the information flow and build value chain relationships between pastoral cattle producers and high-value beef market suppliers to improve whole value chain value and productivity. | $494k |
| WA Vegetable Growers Association | Vegetable Production Benchmarking | WA Vegetable Growers Association and collaborators will develop a vegetable production benchmarking capability, and conduct two annual benchmarking cycles, to drive a data orientated approach towards international competitiveness in production systems across the WA vegetable industry. | $500k |
| Kimberley Pilbara Cattlemen’s Association | Gross Margin Analysis of emerging supply chain options for WA Rangelands Beef | Kimberley Pilbara cattlemen's Association and collaborators will gather contemporary data to produce industry based financial assessment of mosaic irrigation feeding systems relevant to pastoral enterprises. This information will form a valuable decision support tools to inform pastoral enterprises on how mosaic irrigation systems can benefit their enterprises to lift production and profitably 'on station' with different classes of livestock and for new and emerging markets | $198k |
| WA Farmers Federation | Harvest rainfall risk management tool for WA wheat farmers | WA Farmers Federation with collaborators will develop risk management tools to support better management decisions that avoid loss of value through harvest rainfall events. The impact of harvest rainfall during 3 recent harvests reduced WA crop value by an estimated $95 million. | $35k |