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In The Chair: President Peter Draper Members: 13. Guests: Dr. Georgina Pengilley Exchange Student Javian Niewöhner ******************************** The Treasurer Slip-up Who is the guilty party? (Note the water stain from a tipsy glass) ******************************** Guest Speaker: Dr Georgina Pengilley Georgie grew up on a farm south of Launceston in Tasmania. She went to school in Launceston. After school, she did a Rural Science degree in Armidale where she met husband Keith. They moved back to Tasmania in 2002 to work on the farm but returned to the mainland in 2016 when she and husband Keith both began working for the NSW Department of Primary Industries. She then took on the job of leading the chickpea breeding program, based in Tamworth, as it transitioned into a commercial enterprise. She then accepted a similar position with newly formed Rice Breeding Australia. This is a rice breeding business formed under the auspices of SunRice, the Ricegrowers’ Association, and AgriFutures Australia (AgriFutures is the entity that manages rice grower levy funds and the Commonwealth contribution). Growers have recently doubled the rice levy and AgriFutures have restructured the rice program to achieve enhanced objectives – particularly in rice water use. Georgie’s role in RBA to set up and manage the business. It has a small Board, chaired by Dr Steve Jefferies, who has been Managing Director of GRDC. Following a fairly difficult establishment period, which was disruptive for breeding program staff, they now have employed five of the highly skilled staff who worked on the previous program. They have also appointed a breeder from Queensland (Dr. Chris Proud) who has worked on rice programs for a number of years. He took on the role in February. RBA now works over three locations: - A five- year lease with Garry and Marg Knagge for field work
- The use of a glasshouse at Yanco (they hope to build their own soon)
- A seed processing and office location in Brady Way.
They also plan to have 14 field locations across the region where they will work closely with and make real connections with growers to learn about their needs and requirements. The objective of RBA is to make real progress for the industry – particularly in water productivity (tonnes rice per MegaLitre of water); water management (working with Dr. John Hornbuckle of Deakin University); yield – so opening markets that are now difficult to access; and cold tolerance which is a precursor to growing rice with less water in this region. They also plan to expand the area where rice can be grown to reduce the peaks and troughs in rice availability. In addition to her role with RBA, she sits on the AgriFutures Rice Management Committee and is on the GRDC Northern Panel. She and Keith have 4 children – all at boarding school in Armidale. In thanking Georgie, President Peter noted how excited he was with the new initiative. Like Peter, we were all impressed by her extremely busy lifestyle. |
