June 23, 2003

Queensland’s dynamic mungbean industry will receive impetus from a new Department of Primary Industries plant-breeding project.

The five-year project, supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation, will result in consistently higher yielding varieties, and better quality mungbeans for consumers.

Mungbeans are a summer rotation crop grown in southern and central Queensland and northern New South Wales and mostly sold on the export market.

Project leader and DPI mungbean plant breeder Merrill Fordyce said the project included evaluating new existing plant breeding lines by examining characteristics such as high and stable yields, harvesting ease and disease resistance.

The best of these lines would be delivered to the industry, which could lead to its further expansion.

Both dryland and irrigated trials would be held throughout the mungbean-growing areas of Queensland and New South Wales, she said

Dr Fordyce, who is based at the Hermitage Research Station near Warwick, said Queensland was now the national centre for mungbean plant breeding and the largest production area in Australia.

She said the project was important because of the rapid growth of the industry, the value of the crop in a rotation and the potential to reduce production costs and improve quality through a breeding program.

About 98 per cent of the Australian production was exported, with India and Pakistan being significant markets.

National production had expanded from 20,000 to 35,000 tonnes in 2001 and peaked in 1997 at 50,000 tonnes.

She said as well as high and consistent yields, breeding material would be screened for resistance to both powdery mildew and tan spot, diseases that could cause individual paddock losses of up to 70 percent.

She said plant pathologist Michael Fuhlbohm would further develop a robust glasshouse test to detect resistance in breeding lines.

The research will cost $1 million over 5 years.