IN INOCULANTS Nodulaid - 17th International Nitrogen Fixation ...
IN INOCULANTS Nodulaid - 17th International Nitrogen Fixation ...
IN INOCULANTS Nodulaid - 17th International Nitrogen Fixation ...
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17 th <strong>International</strong> Congress on <strong>Nitrogen</strong> <strong>Fixation</strong><br />
Fremantle, Western Australia<br />
27 November – 1 December 2011<br />
Session Details: Monday 28 November 2011<br />
Author:<br />
Concurrent Session 1 – Field Applications 1<br />
1530 - 1650<br />
Neil Ballard<br />
Global Pasture Consultants, Australia<br />
Presentation Title: Application of Western Australian legume and Rhizobium technologies in the developing<br />
world – a practitioner‟s perspective<br />
Presentation Time:<br />
1530 - 1550<br />
Western Australia has been at the leading edge of developing alternative pasture legumes and their rhizobial<br />
inoculants for infertile soils since the early 1990s. Using knowledge gained from applying these technologies to<br />
farming in WA on projects overseas has given me an understanding of the differences in agriculture in other<br />
countries, as well as the opportunities. It has also enabled me to help to show the farmers in those countries how<br />
the WA experience can help them to be more productive and more efficient.<br />
The widespread adoption of no till farming since the 1970‟s in WA is an object lesson for many other low rainfall<br />
countries to grow crops and pastures with minimum moisture loss. When this is coupled with the use of a wide<br />
range of pasture species and an understanding of the importance of developing hard seed banks, it opens up a<br />
completely new range of options for these farmers and communities, to produce the quantity and quality of<br />
forage they have never seen before. The Centre for Rhizobium Studies at Murdoch University at Murdoch<br />
University in Western Australia has been able to develop elite strains of Rhizobia to suit the range of forage<br />
species we have used in the overseas experience, and these have been critical to success.<br />
My presentation will cover application of these new technologies which have the potential to greatly increase<br />
productivity on marginal soils in developing countries. The role of sociology in implementing these technologies<br />
will be emphasised, beginning with the ACIAR funded project ECCAL in the eastern Cape of South Africa.<br />
22<br />
2011