Issue No 7, January 1997.

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.

11. Letters to the Editor

Following requests made to the New Crops program, searches of the world literature have recently been conducted on the following potential crops:

Dear Editor,

First, may I congratulate you and your committee on the organisation and execution of the New Crops Conference. It was extremely professional and I am sure that everyone who attended benefited greatly. It was also good to have such a large internationa l input to the conference.

The Pittsworth Crop Options Day was also an outstanding success and congratulations to those organisers too. The format of the day was also effective for people to gauge which crops were of most interest to them and allow them to get follow up informat ion. My only regret about the day was that I was unable to get around to many other exhibits, such was the interest in jojoba.

Since the conference I have had quite a number of enquiries, principally about jojoba, but also for information about other suitable crops for various areas. If people are told that jojoba is not for them, for whatever reason, then often the next quest ion is "Then what is?"

This is often not easy to answer, particularly if people come from different areas to that which I am familiar. A lot of information is available about a lot of crops but it is not readily accessible. You have been instrumental in bringing a lot of thi s material together in "the Directory of New Crop Workers in Australia" and "List of New Crop Species" in the Australian New Crops Newsletter.

What I would like to suggest is that we! (someone) go one step further and compile a small compendium on new crops species and workers? I believe that it could be done in tabular form (see example below) and printed in the Newsletter. Each person(s) wh o responded to your first call about the directory should be able to supply the necessary information without too much trouble, but then someone would need to collate it for printing. (The table has been rotated 90° for ease of illustrating and the crop w ould be listed alphabetically).

Do you think this idea has merit?

Dear Editor,

The need for a publication such as this has been long overdue. In the last 20 years, Australia has lost 60% of its manufacturing industry offshore. Declining terms of trade in the farming sector are forcing many off their farms and incurring ecological , economic and social costs which should be unacceptable in a country such as ours.

We have to get smart. It was encouraging to read about the regional Development Organisations network. This seems to be the way to go.

After achieving a degree in Veterinary Medicine, a PhD and 4 perfect children, I am now training as a Landcare Extension Officer. I have a background in Permaculture, and though we may end up calling it something else and claiming we invented it, this is where sustainable farming and human culture is heading.

I am particularly interested in the wheatbelt of Western Australia where I live and the concept of regionalised and integrated primary and secondary industry so that we are value adding our primary products. Biodiversity is a hallmark of sustainable fa rming ecologies. Biodiversity in the form of integrated enterprise development, where the outputs of one enterprise become (instead of pollution) the inputs of another, has the potential to safeguard incomes in the rural sector, currently at the mercy of vagaries in the world prices of a few international commodities. My current project investigates viable enterprise diversification options for the wheatbelt farmer, so he can spread his eggs into more baskets.

Dear Editor,

I am a pathologist located in the high desert of central Oregon, where a number of specialty crops are commercially produced. These include peppermint, various grass seeds, vegetable seeds, spice seed and flower seed. Most notable would be Kentucky blu egrass (Poa pratensis), roughstalk bluegrass (P. trivialis), garlic (bulbs for seed use), onion seed, carrot seed, coriander seed, dill (seed and oil), parsley seed and miscellaneous others. I would like to contact researchers and industry people associat ed with mint production.

Dear Editor,

I am carrying out a bibliographic research project about the mechanisation of blackcurrant bud harvesting.

I am looking for bibliographic information and the references about the mechanisation process especially the three following elements: firstly, the research of botanical varieties allowing mechanisation while being compatible with olfactory and gustati ve criteria of the final users, i.e. fragrance and flavour producers; secondly, the implementation of a mechanisation process for cutting; and thirdly, the implementation of a mechanisation process for debudding.

Dear Editor,

I have just received my copy of The Australian New Crops Newsletter, and was quite interested in your article on using new crops to help students learn the basic principles of plant improvement. In our basic plant breeding course (taught by Steven Smit h) we also ask students to carry out a similar semester long project, with very good results. Without a doubt, this is one of our better courses. I teach the basic genetics course, and am writing to ask if anyone you know of teaches an introductory geneti cs course utilizing the same "deep learning" philosophy. I would be very interested in interacting with anyone at the University of Queensland teaching such a course.

Dear Editor,

Just a quick hello. I was interested in your report on the bushfood industry. Is anyone considering crosses between bush and cultivated tomatoes, perhaps via a bridging species (Solanum pennellii or Solanum lycopersicoides or Lycopersi con pimpinellifolium)?

Dear Editor,

I am an Ethiopian working at Alemaya University of Agriculture as a lecturer and researcher in Agronomy and Plant Breeding. My research is on Vernonia galamensis, a potential new industrial crop of Ethiopian origin. Vernonia is interesting not only eco nomically but also environmentally. We have studied the variability contained within the local collections and are now studying the agronomic aspects of this crop.

At this University we are paying a lot of attention to new crops since we have a lot of wild plants which could be economically valuable. I would be interested to hear of any work being conducted on Vernonia.

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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originally created by: GK; latest update 6 June 1999 by: RF