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Tuesday, March 13, 2018
SAGIT announces $1.8m funding towards new research projects
THE South Australian Grain Industry Trust (SAGIT) has allocated $1.81 million in funding towards 25 research projects in 2018.
The trust received 36 applications for funding this year, with successful projects ranging from crop root health, the use of drones, salt tolerance in bread wheats and nutrients in lentils and chickpeas.
SAGIT chair Michael Treloar said applications were of a high quality which created challenging decisions for the trust, which is funded by a grower levy of 30 cents per tonne produced.
“We were really thrilled with the quality and diversity of the applications,” Mr Treloar said.
“We spend quite a bit of time going through them and it is a hard decision, however we only have so many funds.
“Our role is to make sure we invest the funds to give growers the best value for money.”
Mr Treloar said there were a number of exciting projects which would hopefully provide good outcomes for growers in the future.
“There’s been an increased interest in lentils in the past few years so the project regarding growing lentils in low rainfall areas is something new,” he said.
“The UniSA research regarding the effects of pesticides in soils is also a new area which will provide growers with important information about the effect chemicals have on soils.”
SAGIT has also boosted its funding for grower groups, allocating $20,000 to six funding applications which will help attract key speakers. Another round of funding for grower groups will be announced in July.
The successful research projects are:
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