Academic literature on the topic 'Agricultural chemicals industry South Australia'

The Australian grains industry is dealing with a shifting complex of invertebrate pests due to evolving management practices and climate change as indicated by an assessment of pest reports over the last 20–30 years. A comparison of pest outbreak reports from the early 1980s to 2006–07 from south-eastern Australia highlights a decrease in the importance of pea weevils and armyworms, while the lucerne flea, Balaustium mites, blue oat mites and Bryobia mites have increased in prominence. In Western Australia, where detailed outbreak records are available from the mid 1990s, the relative incidence of armyworms, aphids and vegetable weevils has recently decreased, while the incidence of pasture cockchafers, Balaustium mites, blue oat mites, redlegged earth mites, the lucerne flea and snails has increased. These changes are the result of several possible drivers. Patterns of pesticide use, farm management responses and changing cropping patterns are likely to have contributed to these shifts. Drier conditions, exacerbated by climate change, have potentially reduced the build-up of migratory species from inland Australia and increased the adoption rate of minimum and no-tillage systems in order to retain soil moisture. The latter has been accompanied by increased pesticide use, accelerating selection pressures for resistance. Other control options will become available once there is an understanding of interactions between pests and beneficial species within a landscape context and a wider choice of ‘softer’ chemicals. Future climate change will directly and indirectly influence pest distributions and outbreaks as well as the potential effectiveness of endemic natural enemies. Genetically modified crops provide new options for control but also present challenges as new pest species are likely to emerge.

For nearly two decades (1994–2012) a series of three consecutive Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) dealing with cotton production provided the impetus and financial support for a substantial body of soil science research in eastern and northern Australia. Focusing on the most commonly utilised soil for irrigated crop production, the Vertosol, CRC-affiliated soil researchers undertook detailed soil inventories of cotton-growing valleys in New South Wales, and tackled a range of applied soil research questions that faced the entire Australian cotton industry. Across the broad categories of soil mapping and characterisation, soil physical condition, salinity and sodicity, soil chemical fertility, and soil carbon and biota, some 120 CRC-affiliated research papers were published in peer-reviewed journals during the years of the CRC. Findings from this body of research were fed back to the industry through conferences, extension workshops and materials, and to a lesser extent, the peer-reviewed publications. In certain cases, underpinning basic research was carried out concurrently with the more applied research, meaning that the cotton CRC were effectively supporting advances in the discipline of soil science, as well as in sustainable cotton production. A feature of the soil research portfolio over the span of the three cotton CRC was that priorities shifted according to the interplay of three factors; the natural maturation of research topics and the concomitant evolution of cotton farming systems, the rising importance of environmental implications of agricultural land use, and the emergence of carbon as a national research priority. Furthermore, the commitment of the CRC to education resulted in the involvement of undergraduate and postgraduate university students in all aspects of the soil research effort. A legacy of the triumvirate of cotton CRC is a wide-ranging body of both applied and basic knowledge regarding the physical, chemical and biological attributes of Australian Vertosols used for irrigated agriculture.

Intensive rural industry is developing rapidly in parts of inland Australia. The usually nutrient and salt rich effluent from these sources has traditionally been disposed to both land and water bodies. Since direct water discharge is no longer permitted, a challenge now exists when applying effluent to land especially where the rate of application exceeds crop requirements. Effluent of high volume and concentration of nutrients and/or salts can easily contaminate land and water resources. Predicting the optimum rate of land application of effluent is complicated by the physical, chemical and biological properties of soils. This paper addresses the characteristics of effluents from various intensive rural industries and their potential environmental impacts when irrigated to agricultural land in New South Wales, Australia. To assess the environmental sustainability of effluent reuse in land application, a mathematical model (ERIM) has been developed based on a monthly water balance. ERIM includes historical rainfall and evaporation; the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus introduced; their yearly removal by plants to be grown; amount of applied organic matter; and water holding capacity of soil.

Agriculture has almost certainly contributed to the decline of native vegetation and wildlife in rural Australia. A prevalent culture supports agricultural systems that rely on the use of exotic plants and animals and greater use of chemicals and machinery. In general, these systems do not fully utilize or take account of the indigenous biota. The full implications of implementing such farming systems on a landscape scale are seldom considered. I use the grazing industry on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales to illustrate two contrasting approaches: (1) "pasture improvement" involving replacement of native with exotic species versus (2) retention and management of existing native and naturalized pasture species. Pasture improvement has been refined by extensive agronomic research, plant selection and field testing of techniques. Nevertheless, the approach is losing support among farmers because of high inputs required to maintain "improved" pastures, the fragility of these pastures during droughts, low commodity prices, longterm declines in soil structure and increases in soil acidity. Other side-effects include tree decline, reduced diversity of indigenous herbaceous plant communities and loss of wildlife. Using native pastures may offer some solutions to these problems, but the level of understanding required to manage them effectively is limited. Exotic sown pastures have no clear advantage in areas with poor soils and irregular rainfall, and the environmental impacts of new developments involving large-scale pasture improvement can be unacceptable. I conclude that native and naturalised pastures are the best option for most of the region and sown pastures should be used strategically.

Temperate perennial grass-based pastures dominate the high rainfall zone of south-eastern Australia and support a major livestock production industry. This area has experienced a recent change in overall pasture condition, however, typified by a reduction in the abundance of perennial grasses and an increasingly prominent winter-annual grass weed component. Improving the condition and productivity of these pastures can be achieved by improved management but this requires better knowledge of the interactions between management options and pasture species composition and of the interaction between pasture vegetation and the complex effects of a heterogeneous landscape. This paper reports the results of an intensive survey of a 60-ha paddock that was designed to identify the species present, determine their patterns of distribution and examine the relationships between pasture vegetation and the environment. The survey of species present in late summer was supplemented by the identification of seedlings that later emerged from extracted soil cores and by soil physical and chemical analyses. Data were analysed using ordination and interpreted with GIS software so that topographic features could be considered. The most frequently identified taxa were Hypochaeris radicata, Austrodanthonia spp. and Bothriochloa spp. (in late summer) and Vulpia spp., Bromus molliformis and Trifolium subterraneum (winter-annual species). Austrodanthonia spp. were commonly found on the drier ridges and more acid soils with lower phosphate levels. These were also the areas dominated in spring by Vulpia spp. and were generally lower in plant species richness overall. The most species-rich areas occurred downslope where soil fertility was higher and less moisture stress was presumably experienced. The measured environmental factors explained a substantial proportion of the variation in the vegetation dataset, which underlined the importance of considering landscape effects in the management of typical tablelands pastures.

Indian mustard [Brassica juncea (L.) Czern.] is a more productive oilseed than canola (B. napus L.) in hot regions of Russia, India, China, and Canada with somewhat unreliable rainfalls, whereas canola is the higher yielding species in more temperate, wetter regions. The specific agronomic features of the species, and their performance in various Australian regions are reviewed. The discovery of the genes for low erucic acid oil production in the seeds of Indian mustard began the conversion of this ancient crop to a canola-type oilseed for dry areas. Initially, many accessions were field-tested at Wagga Wagga and Canberra, but 2 seed-borne diseases, leaf and stem blight and seed rot, were destructive. Accessions from South Asia were severely damaged by the blight caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. maculicola Young, Dye & Wilkie 1978, whereas most of the cultivars from latitudes above 45°N were resistant. A phytotron procedure was developed for screening seedlings. The segregation pattern in F2 families from resistant × susceptible crosses suggested that reactions to a typical Pseudomonas isolate were controlled largely by co-dominant resistance (PsmR ) and susceptibility (PsmS ) alleles at one locus. F3 families with field resistance equal to the PsmR/PsmR parents were readily recovered, indicating that few or no modifying genes affected disease reactions. Resistant families selected from each of 6 crosses yielded 13.8% more seed (P < 0.001) than the corresponding segregating and susceptible families when these were tested at Canberra and Wagga Wagga. The disease became unimportant when most entries in field trials were resistant. A seed-rotting disease caused by a yeast with distinctive ascospores closely resembling those of Nematospora sinecauda Holley, Allan-Wotjas & Phipps-Todd 1984 occurred in some imported and locally grown seed samples, but was eliminated by hot water treatment of seed prior to sowing and by control of the presumed insect vector, Nysius vinitor (Bergroth), during seed maturation in the field. No previous record of the occurrence of this disease in Australia was found in the literature by a plant pathologist. The availability of breeding lines with low erucic acid seed oil, Pseudomonas resistance, and a predominance of propenyl glucosinolate in the meal permitted the development of a cold-pressed, edible oil industry by a family company (Yandilla Mustard Oil Enterprise) at Wallendbeen, NSW. The original oil has a mild nutty flavour, but now a larger proportion of the market requires a pungent, mustard-flavoured oil containing a trace of propenyl isothiocyanate, the hydrolytic product of the corresponding glucosinolate in the meal. The full-flavoured meal is sold for table mustard and pickle manufacture, as a stock feed ingredient containing approximately 30% protein and 18% oil, and for the distillation, by another small company at Cowra, NSW, of propenyl isothiocyanate, which is used as a flavouring and preservative in food, especially in Japan. This review describes the breeding of cultivars for cold-pressed oil production, as an off-shoot of the canola-grade B. juncea project. Five successively improved, Pseudomonas-resistant cultivars were developed by crossing and pedigree selection for higher yield under a range of limiting conditions, and released for cold-pressed, low erucic acid oil production. The rate of yield increase in the cultivars released between 1989 and 2001 was 2.4% per annum as judged from small plot yields of all cultivars in each of 4 years at Wallendbeen. Flowering time adjustment provided a one-off improvement, but continued progress seems possible by field selection for traits such as increased resistance to the Sclerotinia and Alternaria pathogens, resistance to acid soils, waterlogging, frost at flowering, heat and drought during seed maturation, and increased efficiency of nutrient utilisation. The nutraceutical properties of mustard oil, and the chemical differences among current B. juncea seed products, are described. Possible future developments are discussed.

In this age of human-induced climate change, drilling for unconventional gas is expanding rapidly. In the United States hundreds of thousands of wells tap into shale gas, tight sands gas and coal seam gas (CSG). In Australia we have large CSG fields containing thousands of wells in Queensland, and several smaller fields in New South Wales and Victoria. The scale of proposed development of shale gas in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory will eclipse CSG in the eastern states. Yet unconventional gas extraction has the potential to undermine every single one of the environmental determinants of health: clean air, clean water, a safe food supply and a stable climate.1 To ensure health, water has to be sufficient in quality and quantity. The unconventional gas industry impacts both in a number of ways. Water quality can be threatened both by chemicals in drilling and fracking fluids, and by chemicals mobilised from deep underground in the process.

Kangaroo management is important to the sustainability of Australia’s rangeland landscapes. The commercial harvest of kangaroos assists in reduction of total grazing pressure in the rangelands and provides the potential for supplementary income to pastoralists. Indeed, the commercial kangaroo industry is considered by natural resource scientists as one of the few rural industry development options with potential to provide economic return with minimal environmental impact. While the biology and population ecology of harvested kangaroo species in Australia is the subject of past and present research, the social, institutional and economic issues pertinent to the commercial kangaroo industry are not well understood. Our research is addressing the lack of understanding of social issues around kangaroo management, which are emerging as constraints on industry development. The non-indigenous stakeholders in kangaroo harvest are landholders, regional management authorities, government conservation and primary production agencies, meat processors, marketers and field processors (shooters) and these industry players generally have little understanding of what issues the commercial harvest of kangaroos presents to Aboriginal people. Consequently, the perspectives and aspirations of Aboriginal people regarding the commercial harvest of kangaroos are not well considered in management, industry development and planning. For Aboriginal people, kangaroos have subsistence, economic and cultural values and while these values and perspectives vary between language groups and individuals, there is potential to address indigenous issues by including Aboriginal people in various aspects of kangaroo management. This research also examines the Aboriginal interface with commercial kangaroo harvest, and by working with Aboriginal people and groups is exploring several options for greater industry involvement. The promotion of better understandings between indigenous and non-indigenous people with interests in kangaroo management could promote industry development through the marketing of kangaroo as not only clean and green, but also as a socially just product.

Soil is a valuable natural resource. In the state of New South Wales, Australia, the governance of soil has evolved since Federation in 1901. Following rapid agricultural development, and in the face of widespread soil degradation, the establishment of the Soil Conservation Service marked a turning point in the management of soil. Throughout the 20th century, advances in knowledge were translated into evolving governance frameworks that were largely reactionary but saw progressive reforms such as water pollution legislation and case studies of catchment-scale land and vegetation management. In the 21st century, significant reforms have embedded sustainable use of agricultural soils within catchment- and landscape-scale legislative and institutional frameworks. What is clear, however, is that a multitude of governance strategies and models are utilised in NSW. No single governance model is applicable to all situations because it is necessary to combine elements of several different mechanisms or instruments to achieve the most desired outcomes. Where an industry, such as the sugar industry, has taken ownership of an issue such as acid sulfate soil management, self-regulation has proven to be extremely effective. In the case of co-managing agricultural soils with other landuses, such as mining, petroleum exploration and urban development, regulation, compliance and enforcement mechanisms have been preferred. Institutional arrangements in the form of independent commissioners have also played a role. At the landscape or total catchment level, it is clear that a mix of mechanisms is required. Fundamental, however, to the successful evolution of soil governance is strategic investment in soil research and development that informs the ongoing productive use of agricultural landscapes while preventing land degradation or adverse environmental effects.

Abstract:This paper aims to explain why South Australian agricultural land use is focused on continually increasing productivity, when the majority of produce is exported, at the long-term expense of agriculturally-based communities and the environment. A historical analysis of literature relevant to the agricultural development of South Australia is used chronologically to report aspects of the industry that continue to cause concerns in the present day. The historically dominant capitalist socio-economic system and ‘anthropocentric’ world views of farmers, politicians, and key stakeholders have resulted in detrimental social, environmental and political outcomes. Although recognition of the environmental impacts of agricultural land use has increased dramatically since the 1980s, conventional productivist, export oriented farming still dominates the South Australian landscape. A combination of market oriented initiatives and concerned producers are, however, contributing to increasing the recognition of the environmental and social outcomes of agricultural practice and it is argued here that South Australia has the opportunity to value multifunctional land use more explicitly via innovative policy.

Over the last two decades, a great many farmers in the Adelaide Milkshed (the region supplying Adelaide with its liquid milk) have left the dairy industry which has led to a decrease in milk production relative to demand. Reasons are explored and improved management of the farm, and relocation of dairies to the south east and mid north are considered as possible options for increased milk production. How the dairy farm system operates and the means by which can adopt to malfunctioning or breakdown within the farm system is also discussed.
Thesis (M.A.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Geography, 1993

The Dingo Debate explores the intriguing and relatively unknown story of Australia’s most controversial animal – the dingo. Throughout its existence, the dingo has been shaped by its interactions with human societies. With this as a central theme, the book traces the story of the dingo from its beginnings as a semi-domesticated wild dog in South-east Asia, to its current status as a wild Australian native animal under threat of extinction. It describes how dingoes made their way to Australia, their subsequent relationship with Indigenous Australians, their successful adaption to the Australian landscape and their constant battle against the agricultural industry. During these events, the dingo has demonstrated an unparalleled intelligence and adaptable nature seen in few species. The book concludes with a discussion of what the future of the dingo in Australia might look like, what we can learn from our past relationship with dingoes and how this can help to allow a peaceful co-existence. The Dingo Debate reveals the real dingo beneath the popular stereotypes, providing an account of the dingo’s behaviour, ecology, impacts and management according to scientific and scholarly evidence rather than hearsay. This book will appeal to anyone with an interest in Australian natural history, wild canids, and the relationship between humans and carnivores.