Horticulture Innovation Australia (Hort Innovation) is a not-for-profit, grower-owned Research and Development Corporation (RDC) for Australia’s $17 billion horticulture industry. Hort Innovation invests around $154 million in research and development (R&D) and marketing programs annually to provide benefit to industry and the wider community.

Hort Innovation is seeking a suitably qualified, experienced and capable delivery partner for the project: Addressing herbicide resistance and control failures in ryegrass management for onions, carrots and rotational crops (MT25001).

The overall objectives of the services are as follows.

1.Assess the challenge and the opportunity:

Set up a baseline of the issue by surveying and identifying the geographic spread of Group 1 herbicide resistance in ryegrass (including collating existing data on herbicide resistance from previous surveys) and the impact on yield and harvestability. Determine resistance levels in different ryegrass populations across farming regions and benchmark current management practices.

2.Manage whole of rotation demonstration sites and farmer directed peer learning:

Work with industry to select and manage demonstration sites in key onion and carrot growing regions. Support growers and researchers to experiment with management methods and learn together. Develop through demonstration and peer learning superior management strategies throughout successive rotation crops.

3.Evaluate alternative herbicides:

Review existing herbicide options registered for onions and carrots and identify gaps in herbicide availability. Conduct trials to evaluate the efficacy and safety of alternative herbicide options for ryegrass control, including crop and soil carryover residues. Evaluate the causes of ryegrass escape in rotational crops, including herbicide application failures and resistance. Develop guidelines on herbicide rotation, integrated management practices, and alternative control strategies that together produce best management of herbicide resistant ryegrass. Provide data to support registration or permits for new suitable herbicides for ryegrass control.

4. Maintain linkages with other projects:

Create and sustain linkages with other related projects. Including relevant current and previous GRDC research. Secure opportunities to demonstrate a range of methods from other projects where appropriate such as mechanical and biological control options.

5. Demonstrate the success of the co-developed management strategies:

Work with demonstration site cooperators and their peer networks to evaluate the performance of management strategies and use this to demonstrate superiority of management strategies to the wider industry. Report on changes in herbicide resistance management that can be attributed to the project and the benefits (yield, quality, other) that industry has achieved because of these changes.

Hort Innovation has prepared a Request for Proposal (RFP) document that provides background information, outlines the scope of services, the procurement process and the information required from interested parties. This project aims to advance research services targeting improved management of herbicide resistant rye grass through industry innovation support centred on long term whole of rotation demonstration trials and chemical screening and efficacy trials. We encourage service providers to either form a consortium to submit a comprehensive proposal covering all aspects of the request for proposal (RFP) or to submit individual proposals addressing specific aspects of the RFP.