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.Ian Wood and Rob Fletcher
This is our fourth issue of the Newsletter and readers will have noticed that the size has increased steadily over time. This has occurred, at least in part, because of the increasing support we have received from readers in the way of contributed articles.
It has been fascinating to discover the extent of work being undertaken throughout Australia on new crops and we greatly appreciate the willingness of so many people to contribute articles on their work.
In this issue we include articles and profiles covering a diversity of new crops. These include articles on the hemp studies being undertaken in Tasmania and South Australia, and on the commercial development of essential oils in Tasmania. Also included are reports on bushfood, buckwheat, neem, longan, kakadu plum, and cynara. We suspect that few readers will have heard of cynara but it is an interesting crop that appears to offer considerable promise.
We have commenced to follow up some of the findings from the survey we conducted in conjunction with the distribution of the second issue of the newsletter. We recently sought information from those respondents who had indicated that they undertook extension or consulting activities on new crops. We were particularly interested in their comments on the availability of information on new crops and recommendations for the supply of information.
In this issue we report some of the results of that follow-up survey. The survey clearly indicated the difficulties experienced by extension staff and consultants in obtaining factual information on specific new crops. This has prompted us to make efforts to establish a new crop data base which hopefully will meet the needs of those called upon to advise on new crop options. We do not yet know the best form for the database.
One indication of the impact of the Australian New Crops Newsletter has been the number of requests we have received from within Australia and overseas for permission to reproduce articles from the newsletter. We have indicated that we are quite happy for the articles to be reproduced with due acknowledgment of the author and source of the article. Already, several of our articles have appeared in other newsletters and society journals.
Nearly one hundred replies have been received from our survey of those who wish to be included in the New Crop Workers Directory. If you have not replied, and wish to be included, please do so.
We have received very favourable feedback on our listings of new crop publications and details of conferences, workshops and seminars on new crops around the world. It is clear that many readers have found this information very useful. We have, therefore, begun to establish a world-wide network to obtain up to date information. In this issue we include information on several conferences in North America supplied by Dr Al Slinkard of Agriculture Canada, who has kindly agreed to act as our North American correspondent. We welcome such information from other countries.
We encourage those of you working on interesting new crops to submit articles for publication. We also welcome suggestions on new crops that you would like to see profiled in future issues of the newsletter.
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