GRAINGROWERS in medium to high rainfall areas may be contacted in the next few weeks to participate in a telephone survey looking at the best ways to boost yields and profitability.
The survey is part of the Department of Agriculture and Food’s Bridging the Yield Gap program to significantly improve yields by addressing production constraints.
Survey team leader Keith Ohlsen said the survey would help confirm the information provided to the department through numerous grower and consultant workshops held in recent months.
Mr Ohlsen said the process had identified three clear obstacles to growers achieving higher yields.
“Soil constraints such as acidity, water repellence and water storage capacity are a significant challenge for growers,” he said.
“Management issues, which includes weeds and herbicide resistance, fertiliser and inputs, as well as integrating livestock, have emerged as pressing issues, as have farming systems constraints like dealing with drought, frost and waterlogging.”
Mr Ohlsen said the workshop information, together with the planned survey results and more in-depth economic analysis, would help to formulate a strategy and an investment plan for the department to work with stakeholders to overcome these constraints.
The department plans to hold a stakeholder forum in the coming months to discuss the path forward for Bridging the Yield Gap.
“The department is keen to establish relationships with existing or new grower groups, farm consultants and agribusiness to develop innovation partnerships to address more localised production constraints,” Mr Ohlsen said.
“This could result in a number of activities, ranging from on-farm trials, monitored paddocks and demonstrations to facilitating the adoption of new technology and research, and engaging growers and other specialists from interstate and overseas to share their knowledge and experiences, as we work towards doing things differently to generate gains in grain production.”
Three hundred growers in the higher rainfall areas will be contacted during the survey. The interview will only take 10 minutes of growers’ time to complete.
“The survey will help the department get a better understanding of what yields are being achieved and what action growers are already taking to boost yields,” Mr Ohlsen said.
“It will also look at what they would like to do to improve yields and what’s stopping growers from taking that action.
“This important grower input, along with other consultation with agribusiness and farm consultants, will help to define future Bridging the Yield Gap activities. That way the department and growers are ready to go and maximise the region’s crop potential before the 2011 season breaks.”
For more information about the initiative, visit the department’s website www.agric.wa.gov.au and search for ‘bridging the yield gap’
