Archive for August, 2008

A project aimed at reducing poverty in north-western Cambodia by enhancing the production and marketing of maize and soybean is to receive $1.17 million of funding from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) between 2008 and 2011.

Professor Bob Martin, Director of the Primary Industries Innovation Centre (PIIC) based at the University of New England, is the leader of the project.

The Australia-based collaborators in the project are the PIIC (a joint venture between UNE and the NSW Department of Primary Industries), The University of Canberra and CSIRO. Collaborators in Cambodia are the Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, the Maddox Jolie Pitt foundation, CARE International, and the Provincial Departments of Agriculture in Battambang and Pailin.

The aim of the project is to improve the functioning of the production-marketing system for maize and soybean in north-western Cambodia as a key to increasing cash income, sustainable growth, and poverty reduction for smallholder farmers, Professor Martin said. The project will facilitate the sharing of knowledge and information at all stages of the value chain from farmer to end-user. This will deliver practical benefits for poor rural farmers, including improved food security, increased income, and reduced vulnerability to disruptions.

He explained that the production of upland crops such as maize and soybean had rapidly expanded in north-western Cambodia since re-integration of the former Khmer Rouge began in 1996. However, crop yields are declining and soils are being degraded by excessive cultivation and burning, he said. The development has been largely driven by market demand in Thailand. Local farmers are disadvantaged by lack of market information, inadequate post-harvest technology, and poor transport infrastructure.

The project team expects its work to have a significant impact in Cambodia within five years. This will include an increase in crop yields and profits through improved technologies. For example, rhizobium inoculation of soybean can give a 600 per cent return on investment, Professor Martin said. Marketing costs could be reduced by 10 per cent, which is worth an estimated US$3.3 million per annum in the Cambodian districts of Battambang and Pailin.

Other benefits will include enhanced networks and learning between farmers and others in the value chain from production through to the market, and the adoption of no-tillage conservation farming practices and fertiliser application that will reduce soil erosion and slow down the decline in soil fertility.

The Australian collaborators in the Cambodia project are also involved in a related project, with ACIAR funding of $250,000 between 2008 and 2011, aimed at boosting the adoption of conservation farming practices in north-western NSW.

A PHOTOGRAPH of Professor Bob Martin working with members of the project team in Cambodia can be seen by clicking on the image of Cambodian farmers displayed here. Professor Martin’s colleagues are Pheng Kea (centre) from the Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, and Department of Agriculture agronomist Nou Nakry.

Shane McIntosh and Dr Tony Vancov (pictured) discuss the potential of sorghum residues for ligno-cellolosic biofuel production at the Wollongbar Agricultural Institute.

First generation biofuels such as ethanol and bio-diesel are derived from agricultural crops and therefore compete with food and fibre production for water and/or fertile land. The ability of first generation biofuels to satisfy Australia’s principles of ecologically sustainable development is also the subject of increasing public debate.

Second generation biofuels include those which use ligno-cellulosic biomass to produce ethanol. However, these technologies are not yet commercially available. The development of second generation biofuels has the potential to replace the first generation biofuels and more effectively reduce Australia’s reliance on fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector.

Second generation biofuel technologies have the potential to supplement fuel supplies in a sustainable manner by deriving biofuel from low cost, non-food materials or “waste” materials such as crop residues, forestry residues, algae, or tropical grasses. They may also be more readily adapted to land unsuitable for traditional food crops. Producing fuels from these materials also has the potential to significantly improve the cost effectiveness of biofuels.

Developing a sustainable, greenhouse-friendly biofuels industry based on sound science and located in regional NSW is the focus of a new research project being undertaken by the Primary Industries Innovation Centre (PIIC). PIIC is spending $740,000 over two years to investigate the technical issues behind setting up a biofuels industry using novel feedstocks.

Primary objectives of the research are to:

• Identify sources of biofuels, particularly those which derive from native plants,
• Evaluate and develop pre-treatment strategies, particularly for feedstock native to Australia,
• Assess and improve existing microorganisms to overcome problems associated with ethanol production from lignocellulosic hydrolysates,
• Determine the key natural resource management issues relevant to providing selected feedstocks, and
• Provide the science needed to produce optimal outcomes for individual enterprises and regions.

Dr Tony Vancov and Mr Shane McIntosh at the Wollongbar Agricultural Institute are assessing likely lignocellulose feedstock candidates. They have established a pre-treatment laboratory and lab-scale procedures have been developed. Three commercial cellulase enzyme preparations have been evaluated and preferred preparations have been selected for future work; Tony and Shane are well advanced with pre-treatment assessment of bagasse feedstock and have commenced assessment of forage and grain sorghum residues. The sorghum residues have created some excitement with unexpectedly high levels of sugars.

Tony is also exploring opportunities for collaboration with Ethtec which is the first commercial venture in Australia of next generation biofuel production. Ethtec has established a pilot ligno-cellulosic plant at the Harwood sugar mill near Grafton.

The project is funded by a $440,000 grant from the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change and $300,000 in-kind support from NSW DPI and UNE.

Contact: Dr Tony Vancov (02 66) tony.vancov@dpi.nsw.gov.au

Gillian was awarded the PIIC honours scholarship for 2008 to assess the potential of chicken manure biochar for soil amelioration. Gillian’s project combines some local tillage research history with the latest developments in soil improvement.

Gillian’s parents, Bede and Narelle, own and lease 1,214 hectares of land, including their home property “Glendon”, which is 20 kilometres west of Tamworth. Their holding is made up of displaced blocks within a 12 kilometre radius of their home. The Burkes are involved in egg production, pullet rearing, cropping and feed milling as well as sheep and cattle grazing. They have about 520 hectares of red soils suitable only for winter cropping and 590 hectares of darker soils which are used for summer and winter cropping. During the 1980s, NSW Agriculture conducted a long-term tillage experiment on one of Bede’s red soils. It took a long time for this soil to show any response to no-tillage because of its hard-setting nature, low organic matter and high bulk density. Bede spreads chicken manure from their layer and pullet sheds and is able to cover 150 hectares per year and it takes five or six years to manure all of the cropping country. The chicken manure has made a big improvement in soil fertility. Gillian’s project will investigate whether there are any advantages in converting the chicken manure to biochar. Biochar is a highly biologically resistant form of carbon resulting from carbonisation or pyrolysis of plant or animal material in the absence of air at a temperature above 300°C. This process also produces biofuels that can substitute for fossil fuels. Bio-char can provide long term storage of a significant proportion (25-40%) of biomass carbon that would otherwise cycle back to the atmosphere over time scales of decades. It has also been recognised that introducing bio-char into agricultural systems could provide a range of other environmental benefits. Biochars applied to the soil can provide soil carbon pools which are stable, quantifiable and accountable with respect to carbon trading. The properties of bio-chars vary with the type of organic material from which they are made (eg wood, green waste, manures, factory wastes) and production conditions (eg temperature, degree of activation). Research to date has found that biochars can improve the productivity of crops in low fertility soils through four main mechanisms, they can:

• modify soil pH, mainly using alkaline bio-chars in acidic soils, and hence affect the plant availability of nutrients and toxic elements such as aluminium
• enhance the formation of symbiotic relationships between plant roots and mycorrhiza and rhizobia. This can increase access of plants to unavailable pools of soil phosphorous and nitrogen and decrease use of fertilisers
• increase the retention of ionic forms of nutrients, particularly in soils with low cation exchange capacity. Bio-chars have the potential to increase the efficiency of uptake of nutrients released from organic amendments and inorganic fertilisers.
• increase water holding capacity of sandy or poorly structured soils and hence efficiency of use of rainfall/irrigation. Gillian will conduct a glasshouse experiment using red-brown earth (chromosol) soli collected from the family property. Data to be collected will include: physical and chemical characteristics of the soil and biochar; changes in soil physical and hydrological properties; changes in soil biological activity and effect on plant biomass.