A new industry program will work with Victorian vegetable growers to focus on growing the business, rather than just the crop.
Growing VicVeg is one of 10 projects nationally to have been commissioned by Horticulture Innovation Australia and delivered as part of the National Vegetable Extension Network, using the vegetable industry levy and matched funds from the Australian government.
The program will see industry specialists working with vegetable growers to improve access and adoption of industry research and development, with an aim to benefit business profitability.
RM Consulting Group will be implementing the project across most of Victoria, with the exception of the Gippsland Region.
The group’s Anne-Maree Boland said there was a breadth of activities the program would work on to increase vegetable grower access to industry research and development.
“Priority areas for growers, including farm productivity and use of resources, will be targeted through this project, as well as support for overall business management, such as cost of production,” she said.
“A number of other emerging interest areas will also be supported, including market access, consumer preferences and emerging technology areas.
“New technologies, such as the use of robotics and drones in vegetable production are becoming increasingly popular.”
She said the intent of the program was to link vegetable growers to the best available information so they could make informed decisions.
“The aim is to have practices that continue to drive improvements in marketable yields and overall business profitability.”
The RM Consulting Group team of Ms Boland, Carl Larsen and Clinton Muller will be working with agronomist Ken Orr in the delivery of the project.
Clyde celery grower, Adam Schreurs, from family company, Schreurs and Sons, said he was open to adopting new practices to gain efficiency in the business.
“It is hard to access all the information out there,” Mr Schreurs said.
“Working with other growers, sharing experiences, learning new lessons from other areas – it all helps us make a decision on what else we could be doing on our farm.”
The three-year project will work with regional vegetable growers to enhance their businesses through increased consumer alignment, market and value chain development, and farm productivity including resource use and management.
Another of the 10 national projects being implemented concurrently, includes a similar project in the Gippsland region run by the East Gippsland Food Cluster.