The project will support a Grains Pathology Trainee to be mentored by experienced staff from the grains pathology teams within SARDI Crop Sciences’ Plant Health and Diagnostics program. The mentoring will include laboratory and field pathology training provided by SARDI cereal and pulse pathologists, extension of information through written means, such as SARDI’s Crop Watch, participation in regional field days, and other industry support for grains pathology diagnostics.
This project offers a regionally based internship program, providing a stepping-stone for early career researchers to receive high quality training and hands-on experience to develop their research skills. This program supports young researchers interested in grains RD&E to pursue further research roles while increasing research capacity within the grains industry. This project is a co-investment, with the SA Drought Hub providing an additional $34,068 funding.
This project links to the Federal Government Future Drought Fund which has a South Australian Hub, to demonstrate and increase grower adoption of innovative drought resilience tools, technologies and practices. The SA Drought Hub extension intern will run a series of workshops to extend the outcomes of previous SAGIT investments aligned to the Hub.
The project aims to give graduates with a specific interest in applied RD&E an introduction and hands-on training in the fundamentals of applied RD&E, relevant to the grains industry. Attracting and encouraging agricultural graduates into applied grains research across South Australia, assisting with the succession planning of key staff in research organisations, particularly farming systems groups, is essential.
To improve the capacity of grains research, development and extension on the Eyre Peninsula and to further develop applied research skills of recent graduates so they will be able to make an improved contribution to the grains RD&E industry in SA, through the appointment of a recent graduate as an intern in applied grains research on EP.