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17:41 DJ INTERVIEW: El Nino May Hit Australia Wheat; Scientists Working On New Varieties
Testo: --Drought resistant varieties expected in 2-3 years
--New varieties being tested in Australia, India, Mexico, China
--Talks on with Pakistan's University of Faisalabad to develop new wheat types
--El Nino's occurrence to push up already rising food prices further
By Sameeer C. Mohindru
SINGAPORE--The El Nino weather event is expected to occur anytime later this year, bringing dry weather to Australia and damaging the wheat crop, a senior agricultural scientist said Thursday.
El Nino is currently in a neutral stage but a study of oceantemperatures indicate that this weather pattern may become active again, Daniel Tan, a senior lecturer in agronomy at the University of Sydney, said on the sidelines of the World Sustainable Agriculture Congress here.
Weather forecasting models show that there is a strong possibility of El Nino's occurrence, and this usually results in below average rainfall and even drought in parts of Australia, Mr Tan said.
El Nino is the warming of ocean temperatures in the Pacific accompanied by drought in parts of Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia, and in contrast above normal rains in the Americas.
After a series of droughts for most part of the previous decade, Australia has enjoyed bumper wheat crop for the last two years--though Western Australia was hit by drought in 2010 too--and the next harvest is due in October-December.
Last week, London-based International Grains Council forecast Australia's wheat output to fall 19% to 24 million metric tons this year from a record 29.5 million tons in 2011-12.
Actual output may be even lower if there is an onset of El Nino.
El Nino's occurrence can affect agriculture output elsewhere as well and further push up global food prices which are already rallying due to the increased frequency of extreme weather events across the globe.
Drought in South America earlier this year wilted the soybeans crop and was followed by the ongoing severe dry spell in the U.S. Midwest, badly hitting spring corn and soybeans plantings, while monsoon rainfall is also delayed in India.
Mr Tan said the University of Sydney has been trying to deal with the matter for several years now is doing extensive research on developing heat-tolerant varieties of wheat. In the earlier decades, the primary focus of research was to tackle crop diseases but for the last 10 years, identifying drought resistant genes is also a priority, he said.
The pre-breeding research is done by the university and the good strains are then passed on to commercial companies for further testing at multiple sites, he added.
Mr Tan said to identify the heat-tolerant genes, as part of an international collaboration, these new types are also be being tested in high temperature regions of India, Mexico and China, and this enables Australia to access the wheat germplasm of these countries.
Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research and The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation are providing financial and technical support in the initiative and the new types of wheat may be ready for commercial release in the next 2-3 years, Mr Tan said.
To conduct such tests in Pakistan, the University of Sydney is in talks with University of Faisalabad, he said.
"Discussions are taking place with Faisalabad University (Pakistan) and we are also looking for a grant from one of the funding organizations to implement the (proposed) project."
