Australia
February 10, 2016
Dr James Hunt (left) with his Seed of Light award, presented by GRDC Southern Regional Panel chair Keith Pengilley.
A young scientist who has been highly influential in driving improvements in the productivity and sustainability of mixed farming systems throughout Australia has been officially recognised for his efforts and achievements in communicating the outcomes of research.
Dr James Hunt has been named the recipient of the 2016 Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) Southern Region Seed of Light award which acknowledges outstanding effort in the extension of GRDC-supported grains research outcomes.
The Seed of Light award was presented to Dr Hunt at the GRDC Grains Research Update in Adelaide this week.
In presenting the award, GRDC Southern Regional Panel chair Keith Pengilley said despite being just 38 years of age, Dr Hunt had already left an indelible mark on Australian grains research, particularly in the area of improved and innovative farming systems.
“His pioneering contribution to research into water use efficiency, time of sowing of crops and stubble management, and his ability to communicate research findings, has been quite outstanding,” Mr Pengilley said.
“James’ dedication to research aimed at supporting grain growers in their endeavours to improve productivity and build sustainability and his enthusiasm in communicating new knowledge and new understandings is to be commended and celebrated.”
A specialist in crop agronomy and physiology, Dr Hunt is a senior lecturer at La Trobe University in Victoria – a position he has only just taken up following employment as a research scientist for CSIRO for the past seven years.
Well respected by his peers in the research sector, as well as farming systems groups, grain growers and their agronomic advisers throughout the nation, Dr Hunt has achieved an enormous amount since his career began in 2000 at The University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Land and Food Resources.
From 2004 to 2008, he was Birchip Cropping Group’s (BCG) co-ordinator of the Yield Prophet ® on-line crop production model, which is supported by the GRDC, before being engaged as a farming systems scientist at BCG where he developed and managed collaborative research and extension projects.
In 2009, Dr Hunt moved to CSIRO Agriculture in Canberra where his primary role was co-ordinator of the GRDC’s five-year $17.5 million National Water Use Efficiency Initiative, providing scientific advice to 16 regional agronomic research teams investigating new agronomic innovations to improve productivity and water use efficiency of mixed farming systems in Australia.
The outcome from the WUE Initiative has been described as nothing short of historic for the Australian grains industry.
The GRDC had hoped to lift WUE (tonnes of grain per unit of crop water use) by 10 per cent as a result of the work undertaken, but instead it was demonstrated on some sites that a range of strategies together could lift WUE by more than 40 to 50 per cent.
This significant achievement was widely lauded in 2014 when the National WUE Initiative won the 2014 Department of Agriculture Landcare Eureka Prize for Sustainable Agriculture. The Eureka Prize is Australia’s most prestigious science award and was an acknowledgement of the sophistication and economic impact of the full breadth of work by the grains researchers involved, with Dr Hunt, fellow CSIRO researcher Dr John Kirkegaard and Stuart Kearns, GRDC executive manager regional grower services, recognised as the Initiative’s chief architects.
Many internationally-cited scientific manuscripts have already been published from the WUE program and Dr Hunt – the Australian Society of Agronomy’s 2012 Young Agronomist of the Year – has regularly spoken about the outcomes at regional, national and international agricultural science conferences.
“Those outcomes have changed many growers’ practices and have lifted profitability as a result,” Mr Pengilley said.
“Dr Hunt and his team have delivered to the industry new and more clearly defined approaches to management of our farming systems. We now know how to make better use of summer rain through stubble and tillage management and weed control, as well as being better informed about crop rotations, nitrogen inputs, estimating and managing yield potential, seasonal climate forecasting and risk management.”
Following Dr Hunt’s work on the WUE Initiative, he has been leading a GRDC-funded project on early sowing and has challenged the conventional practice of sowing later after the break in the season with quick varieties to deal with drought and climate change. He has instead demonstrated the value of sowing earlier on stored water with slower-developing varieties.
With PhD student Bonnie Flohr, Dr Hunt has also identified optimum flowering windows for wheat across Australia, taking into account water availability, and through his involvement in the GRDC-funded Crop Sequence Initiative and the Southern Stubble Initiative he has generated new thinking and knowledge around farming systems practices.
Mr Pengilley said that while Dr Hunt’s contribution to research was noteworthy, his ability and desire to communicate effectively to and engage with industry was just as impressive.
“James is one of the most dynamic communicators I know. His use of social media to engage with industry is quite phenomenal, he has an exhaustive list of publications and presentations, and he willingly jumps at opportunities to communicate his passion for farming and agronomic research.
“He is a most deserving recipient of the southern Seed of Light award which is voted upon by the GRDC Southern Regional Panel each year.”
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