Message from the Management Committee September 2021
The Management Committee has been engaged at sever-al fronts over the last month.
We have joined a group to make a bid for funding from the Federal government for a Cooperative Research Centre for Pollination Security. Cooperative Research Centres are programs that help industry to partner with the research sector to solve industry-identified problems. An example of a currently funded and operational CRC is the CRC for Honey Bee products, http://www.crchoneybeeproducts.com/, but they are not involved in pollination, so there is a compelling need for this Pollination Security CRC.
The centre proposes to ad-dress three research areas to build a reliable pollination service for agriculture:
• Sustainable management of ecosystem services
• Pollinator supply-chain management, and
• Pollination efficacy
For an example of how research can help farmers who depend on pollinators to gain high yields, see on page 6, the two publications that came out this month summarizing the outcomes of two recent research projects.
Our own Research, Development and Extension (RD&E) Plan has reached a major milestone; we received the Fi-nal version for endorsement this week. Read more about this on page 6.
With spring and relaxed lockdowns, in Qld at least, there is an abundance of upcoming events to chose from, see these advertised on pages 10 – 12.
We have produced a set of stunning and informative posters to use at field days, information stands, events, etc, see page 13. These are available to branches free of charge, let us know if you want them.
Warm regards from the Management Committee: Tim, Dan, Ian, Peter, Lachlan, Steve, Kit, Toby, Dean, Diane, Lloyd, Mark, Monica, Neil and Tony