What a fabulous two days at Crown Perth for GRDC Grains Research Update 2025!
Dynamic, engaging and thought-provoking, it was a pleasure to be part of this event for the third consecutive year since the WA Agricultural Research Collaboration’s launch in mid-2022.
WAARC was well represented with six team members in attendance including Director Kelly Pearce, Chief Operating Officer Deb Mullan, Communications and Stakeholder Engagement Coordinator Sian Orchard, and three Program Leads: Vanessa Stewart McGinniss (Grains Transformation), Ferdous Sohel (Agricultural Technologies) and Jenny Crisp (Capacity Building and Extension).
Thanks to everyone who visited our WAARC booth to chat about the work we are doing to advance agricultural research and development in this state, and hear about our key programs and projects. It is always a highlight of GRDC Updates to re-connect with our industry friends, peers and WAARC members, and make exciting new connections.
On day one, WAARC Agricultural Technologies Program Lead and Murdoch University Professor Ferdous Sohel presented to a full house on ‘Imaging and advanced AI-based phenotyping for agronomy’. He shared how advanced AI techniques can eliminate large-scale data innovation requirements and gave examples of how AI-driven technologies are revolutionising pest and weed detection in agriculture.
Murdoch University researcher Benedict Arthur spoke about WAARC’s Harvestable Annual Legume Options (HALO) project which is focusing its research efforts on improved cultivars of harvestable annual legumes, integrating more legumes into farming systems to increase nitrogen fixation in the soil, and better understanding legume-herbicide interactions and the profitability of legumes in WA’s rainfall zones.
Congratulations to WAARC PhD scholarship recipient and Living Farm Research Agronomist Chloe Rout (The University of Western Australia) who presented on day 2, sharing her insights into improving canola establishment in WA’s Low Rainfall Zones. We were also delighted to see WAARC PhD scholarship student Varthini Govindaraju Punithan and WAARC postgraduate program participant Mohitul Hossain, both from Curtin University, present as part of the ‘New Researchers’ session. WAARC is committed to supporting the next generation of researchers and leaders driving innovation in our agricultural industry.
Finally, a big thank you and job well done to Grains Research and Development Corporation and The Grain Industry Association of WA for organising another successful and action-packed Updates. It is a huge feat to plan and deliver an industry event of this scale and the WAARC team is proud to be involved.
