GGA Scholarship Grows Results for Grower Groups
May 6, 2009
The Grower Group Alliance Scholarships for 2009 have been awarded to UWA fourth-year agricultural science students, Tristan Cornwall and Nadine Hollamby.
Aimed at creating closer partnerships between undergraduate students and grower groups, the two scholarships are awarded annually on a basis of the applicant's Honours research project idea its ability to be undertaken with a grower group and its relevance to current agricultural industry needs.
The scholarships benefit the grains industry through the development of projects with increased relevance and application for WA farming systems and improved employment opportunities for students.
Mr Cornwall's project will screen a range of registered herbicides for use with low disturbance disc seeders immediately before sowing, to establish crop safety and weed control efficacy. His project will add value to current work being undertaken by the WA No-Tillage Farmers Association (WANTFA) by assessing critical early stages of the crop through plant and weed counts, crop damage and crop vigour ratings. He supervised by Dr Ken Flower at UWA and Mike Ashworth at WANTFA.
Miss Hollamby's project will focus on a new salt tolerant cereal created by crossing bread wheats with sea barleygrass, developed by a collaborative team from IWA, Adelaide University and the Future Farm Industries CRC. She will compare the new amphiploid to current wheat varieties and investigate the timing and severity of salt stress on yield and grain quality, supervised by Assoc. Prof. Tim Colmer of UWA and Dr Ed Barrett-Lennard of the Department of Agriculture and Food WA.
Each scholarship is worth $2000, with $1000 to be used for field research expenses and $1000 for the student.
Successful applicants are selected by the GGA Strategic Advisory Group, which includes four farmers belonging to grower groups across the state, representatives from UWA, CSIRO and the Department of Agriculture and Food, an agronomist and the project supervisors.
The Grower Group Alliance (GGA) is a non-profit, farmer-driven organisation connecting grower groups, research organisations and agribusiness in a network across WA. It is funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation.
