THE Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics in Adelaide is linking up with the Kazakhstan government on wheat and barley genetics. 

The two parties have signed a memorandum of understanding which will see greater collaboration between Australian and Kazakh scientists working on drought, salinity and nutrient deficiencies and toxicity affecting cereal crops in both countries.

ACPFG chief executive officer Peter Langridge said the arrangement would result in Australian scientists providing training for their Kazakh counterparts while paving the way for access to wheat and barley germplasm currently not available to Australia.

“Our farmers will benefit from the research activities of scientist working on crop tolerance to environmental stresses,” Professor Langridge said.

“It allows us to get into areas where we struggle in plant breeding, such as cold tolerance.

“Any technology that comes out of the program will be available to us.”

Professor Langridge said one of the greatest problems in the world was producing enough wheat to feed the population.

He said the world need to double cereal production in coming decades if it was to sustain the human population and avoid food-related conflicts.

He said that meant producing more grain from existing arable land.

Kazakhstan is a former Soviet state in Central Asia.

It is a leading wheat producer, with the latest US Department of Agriculture crop report estimating the country’s production at 14 million tonnes, with exports of eight million tonnes.

It does not directly compete with traditional Australian markets, due to Australia’s higher quality grain.

Professor Langridge said Kazakhstan was quite sophisticated in its cereal research.He said it was very capable in technology development and commercialisation of that technology.He said Australia could learn from its entrepreneurial attributes.



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