Federal agricultural research investment targets Darling Downs innovation

The federal government has committed $68 million to the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), a joint research initiative between the University of Queensland and Queensland state agencies, with the Darling Downs campus at Toowoomba a central site for applied research into crop improvement, sustainable farming systems, and food processing innovation.

The investment, delivered through the Agricultural Research and Innovation Program, supports research programs in drought-tolerant grain breeding, soil carbon sequestration for the dryland cropping systems that dominate the western Darling Downs, and food processing technology that can add value to the region's agricultural output before it leaves the farm gate. QAAFI's grain breeding program has produced several wheat varieties now widely grown across southern Queensland that offer improved yield under the drier conditions that climate modelling projects will increasingly characterise the region.

Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said the Darling Downs was one of Australia's most important cropping regions — producing 60 per cent of Queensland's grain output — and the research investment was essential to maintaining its productivity as conditions changed and international competition intensified. "The best way to support Australian farmers is to give them the best science," he said.

The Toowoomba campus of QAAFI is co-located with the Hermitage Research Facility, a Queensland government research station that has been conducting crop adaptation research in the region since the 1930s. The combined federal and state investment makes the Toowoomba precinct the largest concentration of dryland agriculture research in Australia.

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