Mr WOOD - 2011-05-05
In this year’s Budget Paper No 3, page 154, it indicates that there will be $180 000 to evaluate the potential of new rice varieties under flooded and irrigated production systems in the Douglas Daly and Katherine regions. I believe anything that expands our agricultural economy is good news. Could you please give some details of this project? How does the government balance the views that you once expressed on 5 October 2004, where you said: ‘We do not want to put added pressure on land and water resources by having broad acreage crops such as cotton’, - which I do not agree with. What is your view now in relation to rice?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nelson for his important question. Earlier this year, I launched the Agribusiness Industry Strategy, which was wholeheartedly accepted and endorsed by the industry. It was actually written by the industry.
One of the five pillars of the strategy is profitable and productive agribusiness. That is why the department is engaged in the research. We had the experiments in the 1960s and 1980s with rice, which were flops; they did not work very well. We have now decided to undertake other research based on the industry. The advice we have from the International Rice Institute is to try some trials on dry land - to produce rice on dry land under different water conditions. We know there are new varieties and there are new methods of cultivation. We do not need rice paddies, as in Asia. We had some fantastic results in Katherine when we trialled a number of cultivars. Some of them gave up to 2000 kg/ha, and that was done in dry conditions.
We will try anything to expand the industry and to ensure there is profitable agriculture in the Territory. It is very good research. We have to do it. We do not have to have vast areas of land covered in water. I believe it is a wise use of land and wise use of our efforts to find out if we can produce rice using a different method.
For your information, I know you used the Macquarie Dictionary for the definition of ‘village’, but I would like to advise you that my parents’ village in Epirus in Greece had 2000 houses and 4000 people.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nelson for his important question. Earlier this year, I launched the Agribusiness Industry Strategy, which was wholeheartedly accepted and endorsed by the industry. It was actually written by the industry.
One of the five pillars of the strategy is profitable and productive agribusiness. That is why the department is engaged in the research. We had the experiments in the 1960s and 1980s with rice, which were flops; they did not work very well. We have now decided to undertake other research based on the industry. The advice we have from the International Rice Institute is to try some trials on dry land - to produce rice on dry land under different water conditions. We know there are new varieties and there are new methods of cultivation. We do not need rice paddies, as in Asia. We had some fantastic results in Katherine when we trialled a number of cultivars. Some of them gave up to 2000 kg/ha, and that was done in dry conditions.
We will try anything to expand the industry and to ensure there is profitable agriculture in the Territory. It is very good research. We have to do it. We do not have to have vast areas of land covered in water. I believe it is a wise use of land and wise use of our efforts to find out if we can produce rice using a different method.
For your information, I know you used the Macquarie Dictionary for the definition of ‘village’, but I would like to advise you that my parents’ village in Epirus in Greece had 2000 houses and 4000 people.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016