WITH substantial knowledge in no-till farming, precision agriculture and weed control, associate professor Ken Flower was the obvious choice to lead the Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (AHRI).
Left without a director after the departure of Hugh Beckie in June, Dr Flower was announced as the new head of the organisation last week.
AHRI is a national project based at The University of Western Australia, with major investment from the Grains Research and Development Corporation.
It delivers solution-based research to address herbicide resistance for the broadacre cropping industry and is also globally renowned for its scientific achievements in this area of research.
For his part, Dr Flower has been involved in AHRI projects for several years, contributing his broad farming systems skillset, which also extends to agronomy and cropping systems, to the AHRI team.
Now he will ensure AHRI remains at the forefront of delivering efficient weed control solutions to Australian broadacre growers.
Dr Flower said his vision was for AHRI to show leadership in developing grain production systems with less reliance on herbicides.
"Despite successes in integrated weed management, we are still heavily dependent on herbicides for weed control and weed resistance is an increasing threat," Dr Flower said.
"The paradigm in agriculture is changing with the rapid advances in technology and data science, yet the application has been haphazard.
"I believe AHRI can play a leading role by developing a farming systems approach that is also collaborative, so that new technology solutions are pragmatic and based on their long-term weed control impact."
AHRI has several projects which will continue under his leadership, as well as some new projects which will begin in 2023.
Dr Flower's appointment will officially begin on January 9.