Across Northern Australia traditional low-density horticultural production systems continue to be highly susceptible to tropical cyclones leading to not only stagnated sectoral growth but missed economic opportunities. As part of a new CRCNA research collaboration, a range of high-density production systems and trellis planting systems will be assessed for not only their cyclone resilience but also their production capacity and profitability. Colloquially termed the ‘next generation [...]
Water is vital to our wellbeing and prosperity, individually and collectively. Yet, the ability of our water resources to sustain our development trajectory is increasingly under threat in the face of rampant demand, finite supply, and a changing climate. In the face of this crisis the standard prescription of investing [...]
Greater Whitsunday Alliance (GW3) will lead research to identify key agricultural products for export from the Mackay Issac Whitsunday region through project funding from the Cooperative Research Centre for Developing Northern Australia (CRCNA). Greater Whitsunday Alliance chief executive officer Ms Kylie Porter said the research will identify key Mackay Isaac [...]
By Zara Boshier |Master of Agricultural Science, University of Queensland Project: Exploring the Applications of NIR Spectroscopy in an Indigenous-led Wild Harvested Kakadu Plum Value Chain Zara recently travelled to Darwin as part of the CRCNA’s Improving the efficiency of Kakadu Plum/ Gubinge value chains to grow a robust and [...]
A new aquaculture projects launched today in northern Western Australia is promising to deliver a world-first $160m p.a. industry, exporting 1,100 tonnes of sustainable Australian grown Tropical Rock Lobster and creating thousands of jobs in the next decade. Two Australian companies, Ornatas and Maxima, have joined forces as part of a [...]
‘Transforming orchards to high-density plantings produces higher yields and income…’ That’s the advice from the Transforming Mango Futures project team which spent three years studying grower and experimental mango orchards, examining whether high-density orchards would produce more fruit, more economically, than low-density plantings. The project’s final economic case study has [...]
Darwin’s upcoming Food Futures event will showcase the Cooperative Research Centre for Developing Northern Australia’s (CRCNA’s) latest research collaborations in food and fibre production – from high density-grown mangoes, new broadacre crop and cotton trials to native bush food initiatives. Delegates attending the three-day conference will hear from CRCNA project [...]
The Cooperative Research Centre for Developing Northern Australia’s (CRCNA) today welcomed its new Chief Executive Officer Anne Stünzner – a north Queensland local with more than 20 years’ experience in agriculture, strategic economic and policy development. Anne will be based in the CRCNA’s Townsville head office. CRCNA Chair Sheriden Morris [...]
Northern Australian farmers have the opportunity to test production of a suite of high-value spice crops, which have demonstrated their suitability in a series of small scale trials conducted by CQUniversity. Kalonji (Nigella sativa) and fennel recorded strong yield and quality levels in small plot trials conducted in the winter of [...]