9 results for Fisheries

It is a great time to be in rural research and innovation. There is a landslide of activity across agriculture, fisheries and forestries, all designed to deliver new technologies and opportunities to Australian farmers.

Each year, the Australian government, universities and industry invest billions of dollars in research to support agriculture, fisheries and forestry. There are 15 Research and Development Corporations (RDCs), 43 universities and hundreds of industry organisations and peak bodies, that currently house thousands of research projects. But, in order to find them, you need to know what you are looking for and where to look. Until now.

Australia’s fishing and aquaculture sectors are rich with challenges ripe for innovation – and primed with the Fisheries Research Development Corporation’s strategic plan to cast the net wide to harness cross-disciplinary ideas and solve complex problems. 

An Australian mycopesticide innovation, developed by AgriFutures Australia and the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF), is an effective alternative to chemical pesticides for lesser mealworm control. AgriFutures and DAF are now seeking biotech partners to commercialise the product.

A future-focused partnership, between Australian agritech startup, RingIR and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) under its Biosecurity Innovation Program (BIP) will investigate whether its tech can be used to protect Australian agriculture from hitchhiker pests. Applications for the 2023-24 DAFF BIP funding round are now open for innovators with bold ideas, like RingIR.

Natural capital accounting can help fisheries businesses assess the risks and opportunities associated with the ecosystem assets they rely on. 

A new study is looking at the prawn-producing habitat in the estuary – made up of saltmarsh, seagrasses and mangroves – with a view to understanding how this natural capital supports the fishery’s productivity and to value its contribution through the use of natural capital accounting.

An extension of the acoustic network around the Australian coastline is set to provide new information about tagged fish and other marine species, helping to improve fisheries management.

Dotted around Australia’s extensive coastline are hundreds of acoustic marine receivers – listening stations that form part of a national network, tracking the progress of tagged marine animals as they travel to feed, breed and play.

Near impossible to identify and count with the naked eye, silverleaf whitefly has increased in prevalence in recent years.

To make identification easier, University of Southern Queensland researchers Dr Alison McCarthy and Dr Derek Long, in collaboration with Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries researcher Dr Paul Grundy, are developing a new artificial intelligence smartphone app with funding from the Cotton Research and Development Corporation.

Every strawberry season, researchers from the Australian Strawberry Breeding Program trial, taste and assess thousands of new varieties of strawberry developed through natural breeding to identify the best tasting and yielding fruit for Australia.

Funded by Hort Innovation in partnership with the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, the program supports the Australian strawberry industry by giving them access to improved, locally adapted superior varieties.   

Agriculture is a critical part of the Australian economy, with the country’s agricultural, fisheries and forestry sector valued at $69 billion and growing. 

With that growth comes an urgent need to expand the use of agricultural technologies to ensure both productivity gains for farmers and Australia's role in the global food system. To do this, more investment needs to be channeled into both research and commercial initiatives for the country's agtech.

AgriFutures Australia created the grow^AG. program to address these needs.