NT scientists serve up native rice

Researchers from Charles Darwin University (CDU) are working to develop commercial farming practices for three species of native rice sourced from Northern Australian wetlands. The CDU researchers have been collecting the rice from Wulna-Limilngan country on the Adelaide River and cultivating it in trials in the university’s Casuarina campus nurseries.

The native rice has been identified as a potentially valuable crop with a high level of nutrition but it is currently not widely farmed outside of crocodile-infested wetlands and thus cannot be easily commercialised. The CDU research is concentrating on developing farming methods and practices that would make it possible to move the rice to market in collaboration with Indigenous enterprises.

In the wild, native rice is traditionally harvested at the end of the wet season with harvest running until May. CDU researcher Dr Penny Wurm from the Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods (RIEL) said that the conditions for harvesting had proved difficult this year due to various conditions and the breakdown of machinery.

“This is why it’s so important to develop agronomic knowledge to cultivate it successfully, and why this harvest is such a major milestone,” Wurm said. “It’s just not viable to rely on collecting native rice for commercial purposes from the field.”

Another CDU researcher from RIEL, Dr Sean Bellairs, said that some issues will need to be tackled to support the commercial development of native rice.

“We have developed solutions to germinating the seeds, but are continuing to develop threshing equipment, determining biological control practices for pests and investigating its basic agronomy, such as planting density, fertiliser application rates and harvesting techniques.”

NT Minister for Agribusiness and Fisheries Paul Kirby said the emerging research was producing encouraging news for growers in the Northern Territory.

“Our plant industries are valued at over $445 million to the economy each year and we know the Territory is one of the best places in the world for the production of agricultural commodities, with native rice now showing some real potential,” Kirby said. “We will continue to back in our research and programs that aim to adopt new technologies to grow our agriculture sector.”

More information about the cultivation and development of Australian native rice is available on the Charles Darwin University site.