NOTICE: Hard copies of the Australian New Crops Newsletter are available from the publisher, Dr Rob Fletcher. Details of availability are included in the
Advice on Publications Available.This is the third issue of the Australian New Crops Newsletter. Circulation has now reached 489 within Australia, with a further 277 recipients overseas. We thank those who have contributed to the Newsletter, to date, and those who have assisted with advice. We look forward to your comments; our first Letter to the Editors appears in this issue.
In the second issue of the Newsletter in July, 1994, we included a questionnaire in all mailings within Australia. This questionnaire was to survey our local readers in order to gain background information about their interests and advice regarding the topics they wanted to see covered in the Newsletter. The response to the survey was over 77% (376/489, so far) and we plan to cover as many as possible of the suggested topics in future issues. Our thanks to all respondents.
A summary of the results of the survey is included in this issue. One interesting finding was that 116 respondents are currently engaged on new crop research and development within Australia, with a further 38 having being engaged on this task in the past. This indicates that a substantial effort is being directed throughout Australia towards the development of new crop industries. Also of interest is the existence of a group of at least 24 extension adviser/consultants on new crop options throughout Australia.
Our experience has suggested that some researchers or commercial developers are often unaware of work being done in other parts of Australia on a particular crop, or indeed, on a similar, or related, crop. One of the aims in commencing this Newsletter was to help readers to become aware of such work, with the hope of fostering collaboration in research and development, where this would be mutually beneficial.
However, as described in the second issue of the Newsletter, the issue of commercial-in-confidence needs to be respected. A commercial enterprise will not be willing to risk funding a new crop research and development project if benefits are not protected. The Editors of the Newsletter are concerned about the cost of rediscovering publicly available information and hard-won experience. It is hoped that the Newsletter can facilitate the search for this information by giving examples of how researchers in other crops have proceeded and by publicising publications and conferences.
The survey has also provided the Editors with a means of identifying those readers with interests or experience in certain crops: 124 respondents identified crops in which they had some experience (good or bad) and 154 identified crops in which they had an interest.
We are aware that this information was provided in a survey and must be treated as confidential. It is our intention to write to the relevant respondents, asking if they wish to have their information included in a Directory of Australian Workers in New Crops R&D. Other readers who wish to have their interests and/or experience on new crops included in such a Directory, should contact the Editors.
Readers who wish to submit articles, along the lines of those already published in this or previous issues of the Newsletter, are invited to do so at any time. Crops of interest to readers, and potential topics have been suggested by the survey responses, summarised in this issue.
In this issue, we continue our examination of new crop work in Australia with articles by Farnell Hobman, Primary Industries South Australia, on olives; Allan Green, CSIRO Division of Plant Industry, Canberra on Linola TM; and Dick Steel, QDPI, Mareeba, on tea. Also included is a report by Peter Milthorpe, NSW Agriculture and Fisheries, Condobolin, on the Argentina New Crops conferences, including his appraisal of the development of jojoba and comments on several other industrial crops. Professor Yosef Sheva and Dr Avinoam Nerd also report on fruit and nut trees and cacti being investigated in the Negev desert in Israel.
Any claims made by authors in the Australian New Crops Newsletter are presented by the Editors in good faith. Readers would be wise to critically examine the circumstances associated with any claims to determine the applicability of such claims to their specific set of circumstances. This material can be reproduced, with the provision that the source and the author (or editors, if applicable) are acknowledged and the use is for information or educational purposes. Contact with the original author is probably wise since the material may require updating or amendment if used in other publications. Material sourced from the Australian New Crops Newsletter cannot be used out of context or for commercial purposes not related to its original purpose in the newsletter
Contact: Dr Rob Fletcher, School of Land and Food, The University of Queensland Gatton College, 4345; Telephone: 07 5460 1311 or 07 5460 1301; Facsimile: 07 5460 1112; International facsimile: 61 7 5460 1112; Email:
r.fletcher@mailbox.uq.edu.au[
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GK; latest update 6 June 1999 by: RF