Grains centre goes to school for growers

WESTERN Australia’s grain farmers could soon reap the benefits of having “the Harvard of grains research” in the state, according to the managing director of the new Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre.

The centre, which will operate as a not-for-profit company, was established to improve the productivity and value of Australia’s export grains by supplying the industry with economic and scientific research.

AEGIC managing director Richard Price said the centre would have a strong focus on the grower.

“The way we’ll help them is by better understanding our consumers, what’s driving their trends and what they require from a grains industry by way of breeding traits, quality traits and the functionality of our grains in their specific markets,” Mr Price said.

“From that we’ll get a good idea about how to operate this business and how to deliver value back to the farm-gate.”

The state government has contributed $30 million in funding for the start-up of the organisation. The Department of Agriculture and Food and the Grains Development Research Corporation have each committed $20 million in funding over the next five years.

Other organisations, like CSIRO, have also agreed in principle to a total of $15 million of funding.

Mr Price said the way research and development was funded by governments around the world was changing and the model under which AEGIC was established reflected that change.

“Government departments are strategically repositioning themselves away from large research institutions into more of the economic development space,” he said.

“So, with that comes a need to think about new models for R&D and the other big trend is that private R&D expenditure has really mushroomed over recent years in comparison to the public sector spend.”

Mr Price said shrinking government budgets and an increasing preference for public-private partnerships “fit more commercially and more strategically with the direction that the R&D industry was heading”.

Kerry Regan, Industry Resource Centre leader at the Department of Agriculture and Food, said AEGIC would also increase the efficiency of the R&D side of the industry.

“Part of the strategy is to ensure we reduce duplication, encourage better collaboration across state borders and better provision of information and R&D,” Ms Regan said.

“Western Australia is a logical place for AEGIC, because we lead the National Research Development and Extension strategy for grains and the Department of Agriculture and Food and the GRDC have a strong commitment here.”

Colin Nichol, a grain grower from Hyden, said there had been a need for a body like AEGIC since the removal of the single-desk regime for marketing wheat.

“What we are very badly lacking at the moment is the promotion of Australian grain overseas,” he said. “We need to be able to find and create products from our grain and find better ways of handling our grain so that growers can grow and breed the right type of grain to meet the demands of consumers.”

Mr Price said delivering value to wheat growers, who fund AEGIC through the grower levy paid to the GRDC, was “the mandate for the organisation”.

Mr Nichol said he was concerned the red tape commonly attached to public funding could have the potential to waste AEGIC’s resources.

Mr Price said he did not see this as an issue for the organisation. “This is a new way of doing business, and both the federal and state governments have been very focussed on reducing red tape,” he said.

AEGIC, which opened on November 1, has already hosted a delegation of Japanese millers and government officials to discuss quality and supply issues of WA wheat.