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Project Achievements
Australian trees for China
A recent, independent economic assessment into the value of joint ACIAR, AusAID, and Chinese research in the eucalypt plantation industry in China has revealed a billion dollar payoff. The research, stretching back to 1981 with the China–Australia Afforestation project, has a net present value of $1.3 billion over the 30-year period from 1985 to 2015. Work on selection of cold-tolerant species for the cooler regions of China has recently concluded. The information gathered on seed management and silvicultural aspects of plantation management, such as thinning and pruning is now helping as scientists introduce the cold-tolerant species identified in the project.
Resistance to Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus in wheat
The economic impact of this virus is actually more serious in wheat than in barley, and is particularly important in northern China. ACIAR funding supported the development of the world's first BYDV-resistant wheat. A gene for resistance to the virus was identified in a related wild grass and then transferred to wheat using pioneering tissue culture techniques. The resistance gene is now being transferred to improved varieties in China and Australia, and is being used by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) to provide resistant wheat throughout the world.
Conservation tillage comes to China's dry farmlands
Two projects are active on the Loess Plateau to improve the productivity of smallholders while reducing environmental impacts. Traditional methods had accelerated erosion but conservation tillage experiments at Dingxi and Xifeng have proven that no-tillage systems can produce crop yields comparable to those from conventional approaches. Revegetation of the hillsides on the Loess Plateau has been undertaken in recent times, and rates of erosion are dropping, but the impact this is having on water catchments is not clear. Models to examine broad-scale hydrology are under development to help determine future strategies for replanting activities, such as better matching locations to species selection.
Bluetongue disease of cattle and sheep
Bluetongue, a viral disease, does little harm to cattle but causes sickness in sheep. International movement of cattle can unintentionally spread the disease, which until recently had not been acknowledged in China. Research involving the New South Wales Department of Agriculture and the Yunnan Tropical and Subtropical Animal Virus Disease Laboratory in Kunming has led to the Kunming laboratory becoming a centre of expertise in the region. China has now taken steps to control the disease and has relaxed its quarantine conditions to enable movement of cattle within China and importation of live cattle from Australia, meaning that both countries have benefited from the research.
Reducing Land Degradation
Other project research is dedicated to utilising much of the fragile land in China’s north and west—the source of much of the windblown air-pollution in Beijing and north-eastern China. Introducing land-use changes in northwest provinces that will promote sustainable farming and reduce land degradation has been the aim of the Government’s Grain for Green Program, an initiative to convert from cropping to forestry. The success of this and associated sub-programs is being assessed by a survey of the intended target group—farmers. These interactions are revealing the strengths and weaknesses in the program and identifying policy areas in need of refinement, such as land tenure.
Implications of WTO accession
China’s recent accession to the WTO is the subject of two projects, designed to lessen the impacts of this transition on smallholders in the poorer western regions. The implications of national policy to support food self-sufficiency, particularly in the grains sector, are likely to create negative impacts on poorer farmers. Without some comparative production advantage based on labour and/or land these farmers will lose out as the income disparities between the wealthy east and the poorer west are heightened. Modelling of this scenario is now helping direct policy to create opportunities for poorer farmers to gain by establishing some comparative advantage. Surveys of farmers to assess current WTO accession-related impacts have also been undertaken as part of a separate project.
Breeding new canola (rapeseed) lines for China
Rapeseed is China's most important oilseed crop. Although high-yielding and disease-resistant, the varieties traditionally grown in China produce oil with high levels of two compounds that are toxic to humans and livestock. In Australia, and elsewhere, plant improvement in recent years has successfully produced varieties low in both compounds (now known as canola). This improvement has greatly expanded the potential uses for rapeseed oil and meal. Calculated benefits of $66 million from a total investment of $1.1 million, equate to a benefit of 61 times the research cost. Australia has also benefited with an estimated $4.7 million gained from the joint research.
Integrated pest management for Brassica crops
In the Changjiang Valley in Zhejiang, which supports about 450 million people, about 50% of vegetables grown are Brassica’s (broccoli, cabbage and rapeseed for example). But crop pests have become resistant to the pesticides most commonly used. ACIAR research has led to regimes of integrated pest management, based on studies of the major factors affecting pest numbers in Brassica crops and the role of beneficial organisms (parasitoids, predators and pathogens) in suppressing pest numbers, thus significantly reducing the need to spray. Ongoing research is continuing to refine these regimes. There are also efforts to promote wider acceptance of IPM in Brassica production.