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Interaction with Wagga Wagga Agricultural InstituteThe Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute is one of several regional Agricultural Institutes operated by NSW Agriculture. It is located adjacent to Charles Sturt University, eight kilometres north-west of Wagga Wagga. Some 200 research, extension and support staff are employed at the Institute and at the associated National Wine and Grape Industry Centre. The research and extension programs cover three core areas of activity:• improving the crop and pasture cultivars available to the farming systems of NSW and elsewhere; • conducting research, development and
extension programs to improve the management, sustainability and productivity of the
non-irrigated crop and pasture farming systems of
southern NSW, the traditional winter cropping zone of
NSW including the Lachlan and Upper Macquarie, Murrumbidgee and Murray valleys; and Research staff in these programs are supervisors and co-supervisors of students registered with Charles Sturt University that are undertaking post-graduate courses and projects through the Farrer Centre. There are currently 10 PhD and seven MSc candidates with major or associate supervisors who are NSW Agriculture Research Officers. Four PhD candidates have recently graduated. These students are working on projects that cover a range of disciplines, including plant breeding and the development of markers for genetic characteristics, soil microbiology, soil fertility and plant nutrition, soil chemistry, weed science, crop agronomy, pasture management and ruminant nutrition. This association between the Farrer Centre, Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute and Charles Sturt University is an important link between the institutions that makes good use of the resources of the group as a whole to foster efficient, profitable and sustainable agricultural production systems in this region.
Dr Keith Helyar |