DESPITE the organisation still pushing for members, Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited (HIA) hopes to secure almost $5.8 million in funding for two projects from the Federal Government.
The money is to come under Round 1 of the Rural Research and Development (R&D) for Profit Grants Programme as part of the Government’s $100 million R&D pledge to benefit Australian farmers last week.
One of the HIA projects to receive funding – Multi-scale Monitoring Tools for Managing Australian Tree Crops – Industry Meets Innovation, will offer significant improvement in farm gate returns, productivity and grower auditing capabilities, resulting in improved biosecurity and disaster recovery for Australia’s tree crop industries, particularly avocado, macadamia and mango.
The other successful project – Adaptive area-wide management of Queensland Fruit Fly (Qfly): Guidelines for efficient and effective pest suppression and stakeholder adoption, will optimise the cost-effective delivery and release of sterile male flies, develop a strategy to maximise uptake of the commercial service, and provide a regionally focussed extension for best management practice to secure and grow market access for Australian horticultural produce.
HIA CEO John Lloyd said the announcement is a significant milestone for the Australian horticulture industry.
“The Tree Crop project will deliver a farm-level decision support tool to assist growers with yield forecasting and optimisation, early detection of pest and disease outbreaks, support product traceability (tree-to-plate), and reduce input costs,” Mr Lloyd said.
“Qfly is the major pest of Australian horticulture, resulting in a national annual loss of approximately $100 million.
“It is also a major barrier to accessing markets. This funding will help control one of the greatest threats to the Australian horticulture industry.”
The announcement came as HIA continued its series of meetings throughout Queensland’s horticulture areas to inform growers about the new body and sure up membership.
HIA is a not for profit grower-owned company.
The organisation is required to put together a grower and levy payer register to identify owners within the first 12 months of operation.
A grower can register for free as an individual stakeholder, should their company already have a nominated representative, however, HIA accepts only one membership per ABN with one nominated representative.
Growcom CEO Alex Livingstone said his organisation is taking a keen interest in the performance of HIA to see if the new model lives up to the claim that it will provide more for growers at less cost.
“Despite assurances from the top management, we are concerned that decision-making may become increasingly distant from grass roots producers who will have no real power to influence the expenditure of research budgets beyond a 'tick and flick' list of recommendations,” Mr Livingstone said.
