Improving the Profitability of Pulse Production Through Local Validation of Research Outcomes in the Southern Region

⁠⁠⁠The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) is a statutory corporation established under the Primary Industries Research and Development Act 1989. It is subject to accountability and reporting obligations set out in the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013. It is responsible for planning, investing in and overseeing research and development, and delivering improvements in production, sustainability and profitability across the Australian grains industry.

The adoption of pulses across the medium rainfall areas of the GRDC Southern region has grown consistently since adapted varieties were released for faba beans (1980’s) lentils (1990’s) and chickpeas (1990’s). In addition, other grain legume crops, including lupins, field peas and vetch, have been generally well adopted in the medium and low rainfall areas, but uptake in high rainfall zones is still limited. Research and grower experience has identified many benefits of including pulses in rotations, with improved yields in following cereal and canola crops being one of the main drivers of adoption. Pulse crops provide significant nitrogen (N) inputs to cropping systems through biological N fixation and reduce overall requirements for N fertiliser. As the incidences of herbicide resistant weeds and cereal diseases increase, particularly under continuous cropping and no-till farming systems, the need for suitable rotational break crops such as pulses has increased. The recent development of herbicide tolerant lentils has also contributed to improved management of these weeds in cropping systems and allowed the expansion of lentil in non-traditional production areas. High chickpea and lentil prices and relatively low cereal prices over the past few years are seeing some of these pulses become a highly profitable option in their own right.

Market analysis suggests there is large demand and limited supply of lentil and chickpea into the Indian subcontinent in the short to medium term, so there appears to be scope to boost production within Australia without having a major impact on prices and profitability. Hence, a key element of the GRDC Southern region strategy is to realise the potential long-term farming system and financial benefits of growing pulse crops through targeted expansion into new areas or through sustainable intensification of production in existing pulse areas. To achieve this, there is a need to build upon the core research activities of the GRDC Southern Pulse Agronomy program (DAV00150) and Pulse Breeding Australia investments to develop and validate local agronomic practices that address major constraints to pulse profitability for each agro-ecological zone, considering crop phenology, farming system, environment and risk. A series of field trials is required to generate local data to assess the impact of new pulse information, practices and technologies on farming systems and grower profitability.

The investment proposed here will prioritise the most important pulse crops and the key constraints to production in each agro-ecological zone across the southern region. Based on these priorities, the project will design, undertake, analyse and report upon a coordinated pulse validation program that will generate local, small-plot, replicated, field trial data supporting grower and advisor decisions regarding agronomic practices that optimise the fit of pulses to local farming systems and their impact on profitability. GRDC recently made a significant extension and communication investment in pulse crops entitled: Improving the profitability of pulse production through targeted extension of research outcomes to growers and advisors in the southern region (PROC 9175825). This pulse extension project is being led by Birchip Cropping Group. The validation investment proposed here will generate data that will be disseminated through the pulse extension project and the two complementary investments should be closely linked. As a result of both projects, growers and advisors will have an awareness of the major risks and constraints associated with the production of key pulse crops in their local area, and improved confidence in the adoption of agronomic practices and genotypes with improved traits to mitigate the key risks. This validation investment will take the key learnings of the Southern Pulse Agronomy program (DAV00150), National Variety Testing Program and other relevant pulse research and development activities, and generate data that can be freely accessed to determine the applicability, benefits and key considerations to drive on-farm adoption at a local level.

The GRDC seeks to undertake a targeted validation trial program of significant scale to deliver local data and knowledge for the development of pulse crops suitable to areas across the southern region where research and development is limited. In collaboration with the Southern Pulse Agronomy project (DAV00150), pulse crops and constraints need to be prioritised for each agro-ecological zone to develop the focus of the validation program. For example, it is envisaged that up to four of the most important pulse crops and up to four constraints will be examined in each zone where gaps exist. Local biophysical data from the validation trials and their impact on crop management, farming systems and farm economics will be made publicly available. The validation trial data will feed back into research and development activities of the Southern Pulse Agronomy project, and new knowledge will flow into the pulse extension project (PROC 9175825). In partnership with these and other GRDC projects, this three and a half year investment, starting early 2018, will deliver greater knowledge of the pulse phenotypes suited to each agro-ecological zone and management practices to optimise their production and profitability.

By June 2021, grain growers, advisers and industry will have acce