Dealing with salinity in Wheatbelt Valleys - Department of Water

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1990s. The extension of this type of work to other species and products is now the focus of major national R&D projects supported through the Farm Forestry Program, the Rural Industries R&D Corporation and the Salinity CRC. The third stage, called industry exploration, consists of three sub-sections (technical, environmental and commercial) and is the stage where direct farmer participation is vital. During this stage public and farmer investment can build the foundation of a new industry. In particular, farmer investment in large scale planting and development of an initial resource base and in pooling this within a commercial structure can provide the springboard for farmer equity in the industry. This stage will take several years before the next stage, commercial feasibility investigation, is warranted. This then leads into commercial investment and large-scale implementation. Although our Mediterranean climate is well suited to annuals, perhaps the major reason why we have so few commercially viable perennials is that we have not made sufficient investment in R&D to have developed them. Furthermore, where we have invested in perennials R&D, the range of targets have been mostly confined to plants that can be accommodated in current industries like lucerne. The potential for completely new industries based on woody perennial species has been discussed by Bartle (1999, 2001) and is indicated by the emerging mallee industry (RIRDC 2001). If the development model used for oil mallees and other woody perennials is applied to perennial herbaceous pastures, it appears that lucerne is past the feasibility investigation phase. However, the range of factors affecting the adoption of a relatively well understood option such as lucerne as described in this paper demonstrates the complexity of introducing a new enterprise. Simply growing a new species of plant is a relatively easy task. Developing a production and marketing system that takes into account the intricacies of the biophysical, economic and management issues is a much larger task. Not only are the data sparse, but ideas about how the farming, processing and marketing systems might be optimised are in their infancy. Historically the length of time to develop a new farming system and introduce it on a large scale can be expected to be at least 20 years. An example of rapid adoption of an agricultural innovation is the development of the lupin industry in Western Australia. The first domestic lupin variety was – 15 – Porter, Bartle and Cooper released in 1967 and by 1987 an area was established equivalent to approximately 5% of the WA agricultural area (Marsh et al. 1996). The lupin production system, based on an annual crop plant, is not as radically different to conventional systems as one involving perennials. 3A TECHNICAL 1. SEARCH 2. PREFEASIBILITY STUDY 3. INDUSTRY EXPLORATION 3B ENVIRONMENT 4. FEASIBILITY INVESTIGATION 5. IMPLEMENTATION 6. PROMOTION AND ADOPTION 3C COMMERCIAL Figure 5: The development model behind the emerging mallee industry (Bartle, 2001) Managing the development of perennial-based industries It is one thing to demonstrate the need for research and development, it is another thing to undertake it successfully. There are few involved in Western Australian agriculture who would question the contribution of scientific research to the development of the sector. The partnership between agricultural scientists with specialist knowledge and farmers with a willingness to integrate new knowledge into their farming system is well understood. However, despite this, there is not a shared vision about the place of specialists in the future of salinity management. A simplistic representation of a common view developed over the past decade sees a polarisation of approaches to salinity management into two broad groups – the “researchers” and the “on-ground-workers”: • The “researchers” are sometimes seen by “onground-workers” as spending funds on research
Porter, Bartle and Cooper that is at best directed at the wrong questions or at worst totally unnecessary. One recent quote is: “‘Experts’ have been a barrier to change as they have said things can’t be done”; • The “on-ground-workers” are seen by “researchers” as wasting resources by pushing ahead with strategies that are popularly held to be useful, but which at best are unproven and at worst have been found to be ineffective. R&D investors and interested parties (e.g. everyone at the Conference) need to have confidence that the research is addressing the right questions and is being conducted in a way that has the best chance of success. Establishing a mechanism for investors to have that confidence is a priority. Over recent years in some quarters there has been a growing trend to farmers participating in setting priorities and undertaking research. Examples of groups that have taken an active role in significant areas of research are the Oil Mallee Association, the Oil Mallee Company, the Evergreen Group (West Midlands), Liebe Group (Northern Wheatbelt), Irwin Mingenew Group (Northern Wheatbelt), the WA Lucerne Growers Association and the primary farmers of the Low recharge cropping systems project. Wiley (pers. comm.) points out that Northern Wheatbelt farmers are adopting lucerne on a broad scale with very little research done in their areas: “Adoption is driven by farmers, not researchers. We need to find out what are the factors which are inhibiting and encouraging farmers to adopt first, and then focus research on these issues. The biggest challenges for farmers when changing to perennial based farming will be the ‘systems’ changes, rather than simple technical changes. Traditional reductionist R&D is not appropriate for addressing these issues. Farmers will have to do the bulk of the systems development with support from R&D people. This will require a change in thinking for many researchers and farmers.” In addition to a process that allows farmers to be part of the R&D team, it is important that we develop and maintain the capacity of our specialists. We need to ensure that we are supporting people who can undertake quality research and development. The Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Plant-based management of dryland salinity is a body that can help support that development. – 16 – CONCLUSIONS • Large areas of perennial plants will not be established in the Wheatbelt unless they are part of profitable enterprises; • Profitable enterprises based on perennial plants that can be established over large areas do not exist apart from a small number that are under development; • Developing new agricultural enterprises based on perennial plants involves a complex range of research and development activities covering topics as broad as plant agronomy, farming system development , harvest engineering, product and market development, and management and funding structures. • There is a need to invest significantly more in relevant R&D than in the past. • Developing realistic viable perennial options will require a shared appreciation of the needs and direction of R&D through the participation of farmers, scientists and bureaucrats in the entire process. • There are some successful examples of partnerships between farmers and scientists that provide a basis for developing future R&D teams. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Our thanks go to Mike Ewing, Diana Fedorenko, Richard George, Alan Herbert, Ross Kingwell, Roy Latta, Dave Pannell and Tim Wiley, for their contributions of information and discussion. REFERENCES ABARE (1998). Australian Grains Industry 1998. ABARE (2000). Australian Grains Industry 2000, July, 87 pp. Australian Bureau of Statistics (2001). See: http://www.abs.gov.au Barrett-Lennard, E.G., Griffin, T. & Goulding, P. (1999). Assessing areas of saltland suitable for productive use in the Wheatbelt of WA: a preliminary assessment for the State Salinity Council, Perth, 14 pp. Bartle, J., Edgecombe, W. & Brennan, G. (1999). Western Australian program for the selection and development of
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Foreword Dealing with Salinity in W
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1Day one: Monday 30th July. Field t
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Papers Dealing with Salinity in Whe
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Ali and Coles biggest challenges fa
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Ali and Coles erosion, maintenance
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Ali and Coles expected under these
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Ali and Coles Coles, N.A. & Ali, M.
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Commander, Schoknecht, Verboom and
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APPRECIATING AND CREATING OUR HISTO
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services. The Government responded
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WHEATBELT VALLEYS IN DIFFICULTIES T
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argue that they were really abnorma
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1990s, the wheatbelt valleys in par
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REFERENCES Agstats (1997). Agricult
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George and Coleman two to four fold
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George and Coleman surface, the vas
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George and Coleman for example in t
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George and Coleman current trends c
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George and Coleman While not as div
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George and Coleman SPECIES Table 5:
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George and Coleman advantages of so
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George and Coleman this volume). In
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George and Coleman Venture Economy
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George and Coleman Lawrence, C. (19
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Hatton and Ruprecht WATCHING THE RI
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Since the mid 1970s annual rainfall
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Effect of clearing on runoff The ot
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Salinity Monthly streamflow (ML) 10
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The ratio of the salt outputs to in
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- 11 - Hatton and Ruprecht Table 4:
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THE FUTURE In looking at the future
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McFarlane, D.J., George, R.J. & Far
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Keighery, Halse and McKenzie Terres
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Keighery, Halse and McKenzie Wetlan
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Keighery, Halse and McKenzie specie
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Photo Gallery 2 Dealing with Salini
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APPENDIX 1 BACKGROUND HYDROLOGY AND
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WHEATBELT HYDROLOGY Flow in the Yil
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Flow (ML) STREAM SALINITY Salt Rive
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APPENDIX 2 WATER MANAGEMENT OPTIONS
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APPENDIX 3 MANAGING WATER AND SALIN
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SUMMARY- TIMELINE OF RECENT SIGNIFI
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RECENT HISTORY OF WATER AND SALINIT
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Figure 1. Hydrological cross-sectio
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Depth (m) 316 315 314 313 312 311 M
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FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS AND MANAGEME
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