New institute to help agriculture meet challenges

Australian agriculture must become even smarter to help overcome the major threats to production.

That's according to researchers at the University of Adelaide's new Waite Research Institute.

The Waite Research Institute - which encompasses research at the University of Adelaide's world-renowned Waite Campus - was launched last month by the South Australian Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, the Hon. Michael O'Brien.

The Institute aims to ensure profitable and productive agriculture in the face of climate change, increased costs of energy, limited natural resources, urbanisation and environmental degradation.

"Agriculture must meet the challenges of the future against a background of declining land and water resources and the impacts that climate change will bring," said the Director of the Waite Research Institute, Professor Roger Leigh.

"The new Waite Research Institute builds on the outstanding research achievements of the Waite Campus, a campus that is internationally recognised for research of the highest quality, focused on innovative solutions for improving agricultural systems.

"The research that the Institute will provide - in partnership with government, industry, and research collaborators - is exactly the kind of innovation needed to help Australia's agriculture and related sectors to overcome the challenges of today and of the future.

"We need to address these issues from paddock to plate. It's a big challenge for researchers to do this. We've already discovered a lot of the easier solutions to the problems faced to date - we now have to be even smarter," Professor Leigh said.

As well as University-based research, the Waite Campus is home to a number of partner research organisations. Collectively the co-located partners have more than 1000 staff and postgraduate students and an annual research income of more than $110 million.

Research activities in the Waite Research Institute include: plant and pest biology, plant genetics and breeding, integrated farming systems, soil science, food science, wine science, agronomy and agricultural economics.

Vice-Chancellor and President Professor James McWha said the University's Waite Campus "remains the envy of many universities around Australia and the world".

"The co-location of the University of Adelaide with industry and government partners - such as PIRSA, SARDI, CSIRO and the Australian Wine Research Institute - produces unique outcomes that will ensure continued benefits for primary producers, industry, and consumers," he said.

The Waite Research Institute has been named in honour of Peter Waite (1834-1922). The original Waite Agricultural Research Institute, founded by the University of Adelaide at Urrbrae in 1924, followed a bequest of 300 acres (121 hectares) of land by Peter Waite, which included historic Urrbrae House.

The Waite Campus is Australia's leading agricultural research, education and commercialisation cluster. It has the largest concentration of expertise in the southern hemisphere in the areas of plant biotechnology, cereal breeding, sustainable agriculture, wine and horticulture and land management.

Research centres associated with the Waite Research Institute include: the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics, Australian Plant Phenomics Facility, Centre for Soil Plant Interactions, FoodPlus Research Centre and the Wine Innovation Cluster.

Story by David Ellis

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