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Farmers to benefit from pulse breeding venture

Monday, 19 March 2007

Farmers and the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥n grains industry will be the winners from a new national pulse breeding collaboration involving ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ of Adelaide plant breeders.

Pulse Breeding ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ (PBA), launched at the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ of Adelaide, will coordinate ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥'s pulse breeding efforts and create a world-class breeding and germplasm enhancement program. Pulses are the dried edible seeds of legume plants such as lentils, beans and peas.

PBA is a collaborative venture between the (GRDC), Pulse ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥, the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ of Adelaide, the (SARDI) and state departments of primary industries in Victoria, NSW, Queensland and Western ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥.

PBA board member and ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ of Adelaide Deputy Head of the Associate Professor Mike Keller said: "The ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ of Adelaide's position in this new venture underlines our role as the leading ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥n university in the area of plant breeding.

"Our involvement in programs like Pulse Breeding ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ provides an avenue for us to deliver our plant science research to the farming community. It also adds great strength to our postgraduate training in plant breeding."

ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ of Adelaide Plant breeder and Research Fellow Dr Jeff Paull will lead the national program. Under PBA the existing faba bean breeding programs in NSW and Waite will work together to meet national needs and avoid duplication.

Inaugural PBA Chairman Peter Reading, who is also managing director of the GRDC, said the creation of PBA would help to underpin the sustainability of the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥n grains industry.

"Pulses are an important part of ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥n grain production, both as export crops in their own right and as part of crop rotations," he said. "The aim of PBA is to coordinate a cost-effective pulse breeding program that develops new, superior varieties more quickly for our farmers.

"Its focus will be on monitoring reliable market signals, accessing elite germplasm for breeding efforts and rapid adoption by ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥n growers of new lentil, faba bean, chickpea and field pea varieties that have been developed for, and field-tested in, local conditions."

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