Application for Top-Up Scholarship - University of Queensland

The water shortage brought about by a combination of climate changes and recent environmental flow legislation that limits irrigation water allocation has created an unprecedented restriction on rice production in south-eastern Australia. Therefore, the Australian rice industry aims to increase its water productivity and consider adopting water-saving alternative rice cultivation methods. Accordingly, AgriFutures Australia has set up its target of achieving water productivity of 1.5 tonnes/ML by 2016.  Among a few alternative options, aerobic rice cultivation has been proposed to deliver the water productivity transformation. Aerobic rice cultivation requires less water than traditional permanent water rice cultivation. Grain yield in the Riverina is one of the highest in the world with an average of around 10.5t/ha. The aim of this work is to understand the dynamics of nitrogen accumulation under aerobic conditions in representative genotypes. under intermittent, yet high water availability conditions to ensure high grain yield and quality are maintained. Therefore, understanding how the different rice varieties perform in different nitrogen and water availabilities will bring key insights to water productivity, high yield, and quality attributes.