Download p25 - Recognition

25
recognition
PARTNERS issue three 2015
photo: Brad Collis
Australia’s
wheat warriors
When the board of trustees of the
International Maize and Wheat
Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
elected to meet in Australia in
2010, CIMMYT opted to honour
Australian scientists who had
played key roles as directorsgeneral, board members, staff or
collaborators, dubbing them the
“Australia-CIMMYT wheat warriors”:
n John P. Brennan
n Paul S. Brennan
n Edwina C. Cornish
n John M. Dixon
n Terence Enright
n Lloyd T. Evans
n Kenneth S. Fischer
n Tony Fischer
n Paul N. Fox
n Anthony Gregson
n Robert A. McIntosh
n James R. McWilliam
n Ligia Ayala-Navarrete
n Peter J. Ninnes
n Timothy G. Reeves
n James R. Syme
n Richard M. Trethowan.
The synergy between CIMMYT
and Australian agricultural science
continues to deepen, acquiring
even greater significance as
CIMMYT attempts the monumental
task of doubling wheat yields by
2050 without increasing inputs,
especially irrigation, water or
fertiliser.
It is a goal that resonates deeply
with Australian grain growers and
a task that is drawing liberally
on Australian expertise. Already
scientists such as CSIRO’s Dr Richard
Richards and Dr Bob Furbank have
taken on leadership roles in largescale, multimillion-dollar, global
projects that include the Wheat
Yield Potential Consortium and the
C4 Rice Project.
ICARDA’s crop trials site
near Aleppo, Syria, before
researchers were forced to
evacuate to Jordan.
The big dry
With the world’s greatest rainfall variability, frequent droughts and parched landscapes, Australia must be water savvy or face dire
consequences. This fundamental law of survival means that of the 15 Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
Centres, it is the two dedicated to cropping arid environments that are especially significant for Australian farmers. These are the
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the
Dry Areas (ICARDA). Here, too, Australians have a left a large institutional footprint.
ICRISAT Governing Board
ICRISAT management
ICARDA Board of Trustees
n 2008–13: Meryl Williams
n 1996–2003: Donald R. Marshall
n 1988–95: Max N. Birrell
n 1980–86: John L. Dillon
n 1982–86: Chairman John L. Dillon
n 2012–13: Joanna Kane-Potaka (director—
strategic marketing and communication)
n 2009–11: Peter J. Ninnes (director—
resource planning and marketing)
n 2000–02: Jill M. Lenné (deputy directorgeneral—research)
n 1992–97: Donald E. Blyth (associate
director-general—research)
n 1991–97: James G. Ryan (directorgeneral)
n 2011–12: Eve Bosak
n 1993–98: July Virgo Noolan
n 1988–94: Norman Halse
n 1981–87: Ralph A. Fischer
n 1976–81: James McWilliam
photo: ICARDA
Drought’s nemesis
ACIAR was among a handful of organisations especially
thanked by the 2015 recipients of the prestigious international
award for outstanding contributions to plant breeding—the
Gregor Mendel Innovation Prize.
The recipients safeguarded one of the world’s great gene
banks when civil strife in Syria overtook the research station
and headquarters of the International Center for Agricultural
Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in 2014. The prize went to
local scientists within the Genetic Resource Section, headed
The ICARDA genebank team at Tel Hadya station. The team’s work
duplicating and safeguarding the seed collection won the 2015
by Dr Ahmed Amri, who remained behind when international
Gregor Mendel Innovation Prize.
staff were evacuated to duplicate and transfer ICARDA’s gene
bank to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.
ICARDA’s gene bank is one of the premier resources for protecting the world’s grain farms from yield-damaging stresses, particularly
drought. It is a genetic resource of particular importance to Australia’s lucrative grains industry, a fact long recognised by both ACIAR
and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), who together have developed a special rapport with ICARDA.
Dr Francis Ogbonnaya, a former ICARDA breeder and now GRDC senior manager for crop genetics, says: “Today in Australia, for
example, we have a pulse industry and breeding programs that improve productivity thanks to the relationship with ICARDA.”
Each year, ICARDA fast-tracks elite material to Australian breeders as part of the CIMMYT–Australia–ICARDA Germplasm
Evaluation (CAIGE) Program that is broadening the productivity, stress and disease tolerance of Australian cereals. Dr Ogbonnaya
says that saving the gene bank was of monumental national importance.