The nursery industry is looking beyond Australian borders to excavate unexampled inquiry synergies and identify potential quislingism that will further plump for the growth of its 1,777 production nurseries .
roll in the hay as the Global Review and Gap Analysis of Nursery R&D Initiatives ( NY17007 ) , the project is fund by Hort Innovation using glasshouse levy and funds from the Australian Government . The review is being birth by Dr Kristen Stirling , Dr Doris Blaesing and Hugh Wardle from RM Consulting Group ( RMCG ) .
RMCG Senior Consultant , Dr Kristen Stirling , oversees the project and , with the squad , has pass the preceding five calendar month position Australian glasshouse R&D under the microscope to secure levy en masse investment funds are meeting the current and future research penury of industry .
A primal part of the project is comparing Australian R&D to similar syllabus encounter around the macrocosm . Dr Stirling believes that Australia is punching well above its system of weights , but coaction with global research providers could take it to the next level .
“ The Netherlands is abode to one of the human beings ’s leading horticultural university , Wageningen , which has extensive potentiality , experience and facilities to deal innovative R&D for the baby’s room industry , ” Dr Stirling say .
“ Current priority research areas at Wageningen include the reuse and recycling of water , energy and climate management , as well as next generation sequencing for biosecurity cover , all of which are fantastically relevant to grower here .
“ Wageningen ’s name keeps pop up in Australia . The mental home late cooperate with Western Sydney University on a state - of - the - art vegetable glasshouse , and provided remark into the University of Tasmania ’s Hort Masterclass . ”
Hort Innovation funds lead R&D on behalf of Australia ’s horticultural sector , investing $ 2.26 million into R&D for the glasshouse industry in 2017 - 18 on areas such as biosecurity preparedness , calling growing and green infrastructure .
Dr Stirling looked at its counterpart in the UK , AHDB Horticulture , which is investing in similar areas and , more recently , the use of robotics to help address work force challenges such as stave attraction and retentivity .
“ AHDB has a plan called Smart Hort which is aimed at reduce trust on humans to grow production horticulture . This is particularly apt for their industry , as Brexit continues to play out and admittance to parturiency becomes harder , ” she say .
“ For instance , a robotic undertaking is afoot to profit small to medium scale line , aimed at automatise repetitive labor such as take and inserting cuttings , grading and collating pant specimens , as well as minimising plant life damage ” .
This technology could be a secret plan - changer for Australia ’s baby’s room manufacture , which also faces challenge around access to labour , particularly as demand for green life increase , and people are moving away from agricultural jobs .
Dr Stirling said that when she near Wageningen and AHDB , they were enthusiastic about the expectation of collaborating with Australian R&D providers for the improvement of baby’s room growers worldwide .
“ The baby’s room manufacture is active but highly divers . As we ’re consider with many dissimilar products and markets , it ’s important to take down that research is n’t a one - size - fits - all , but a fomite to recover raw solutions for the welfare of the great unwashed and plants . ”
The projection has complete an initial desktop review to assess inquiry investment funds happening domestically and internationally . RMCG has also tackle stakeholder consultations with R&D provider and industriousness .
The recapitulation and finding are now being analyze for RMCG to develop a roadmap to guide potential research opportunities and collaborationism for Australia ’s baby’s room industriousness . It will be available early 2019 .
For more information : Nursery & Garden Industry AustraliaKobie Keenan(02 ) 8861 5100[email protected]www.ngia.com.au
