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Nine University of Western Australia (UWA) postgraduate students recently presented diverse PhD research projects at The UWA Institute of Agriculture (IOA) ‘Frontiers in Agriculture Postgraduate Showcase 2011’, proving to an audience of farmers, academics, scientists, industry and government representatives that agriculture’s future is as bright as its young graduates.

Opening the Showcase, Winthrop Professor Alan Dench, Dean of UWA’s Graduate Research School, highlighted the potential of each student’s research to affect the development of profitable and sustainable agriculture.

He welcomed the presenting students from the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Science’s Schools of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Earth and Environment, Plant Biology and Animal Biology and from the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Science’s School of Medicine and Pharmacology.

Chelsea Fancote, originally from a Brookton, WA, farm, began her PhD in 2008, researching the potential benefits of saltbush as a source of Vitamin E to improve sheep health and meat quality.

Her PhD supervisors are Prof Phil Vercoe, Dr Ian Williams, Dr Hayley Norman and Dr Kelly Pearce.

“Feeding saltbush, a native shrub used to revegetate areas of dryland salinity, can provide a good dietary source of Vitamin E, which can then help reduce the unsightly browning of meat that can occur if animals are deficient in Vitamin E,” Ms Fancote said.

Jo Elliott, who researched pigs during her first class honours in agricultural science at UWA in 2007, is now completing a Sheep CRC supported PhD on why producers choose certain types of lamb survival strategies.

Her PhD supervisors are Assoc Prof Dominque Blache, Prof Julie Lee and Assist Prof Jo Sneddon.

One of Ms Elliott’s conclusions is that minimising ewe and lamb disturbance at lambing and maximising feed availability was the most commonly used strategy.

Noraini Md Jaafar, from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and sponsored by the Malaysian Government for her UWA PhD in the School of Earth and Environment, is assessing how biochar, a stable form of charcoal increasingly popular as a soil conditioner and in carbon sequestration, influences soil micro-organisms.

Her PhD supervisors are Winthrop Prof Lyn Abbott, Assoc Prof Peta Clode and Assoc Prof Daniel Murphy.

“Knowing more about how different types of biochars can affect the survival and activity of micro-organisms should help its practical applications in farming systems,” she said.

Already, her research has noted that the type of biochar mainly affects microbial biomass.

Brazilian Mariana Cruz Campos, of UWA’s School of Plant Biology, is researching phosphorus nutrition, which is the most limiting factor for growth of native Australian plant species.

Her PhD supervisors are Winthrop Prof Hans Lambers Assist Prof Stuart Pearse and Prof Rafael Oliveira.

Acknowledging that natives are very good at sourcing and retaining phosphorus, Ms Campos believes that by studying positive traits in native species, some of those traits could be used in commercial crop species, by using natives in rotations or co-existing with crops, or even using genetic modification techniques.

Kevin Foster, also from the School of Plant Biology, is on study leave from the Department of Agriculture and Food WA, where he’s worked for 20 years.

His UWA PhD is researching the drought resistance qualities of the perennial herbaceous novel legume known as Tedera.

Mr Foster’s PhD supervisors are Winthrop Prof Hans Lambers, Assoc Prof Megan Ryan and Dr Daniel Real.

Commonly used as a summer green feed for sheep and goats on the Canary Islands, Tedera has highly evolved mechanisms for withstanding severe drought.

Mr Foster described Tedera as a highly light adapted plant which avoids water deficits by maximising water uptake through its tap and lateral roots and minimising water loss by excellent stomatal control and leaf folding to reduce transpiration and light interception.

Jessie Moniodis, for her PhD, is assessing factors controlling oil biosynthesis in WA sandalwood.

She expects her research will aid future tree improvement, conservation and also potential metabolic engineering for desirable oil constituents.

“This is important because unsustainable harvesting of native sandalwood has placed greater reliance on plantation sandalwood,” she said.

Her PhD Supervisors are Prof Julie Plummer, Assoc Prof Emilio Ghisalberti, Dr Chris Jones, Dr Liz Barbour and Prof Joerg Bohlmann.

South African-born Catherine Bondonno, a former industrial microbiologist in South Africa and New Zealand, is now doing her PhD at UWA on the health effects of flavonoid rich apples, which can positively impact nitric oxide and its functional outcomes for cardiovascular disease.

“Eating flavonoid rich apples can be a natural, low cost approach to reducing the cardiovascular risk profile of the general population and this is significant as cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in Australia,” she said.

Aidilla Mubarak, sponsored by the Malaysian Government for UWA PhD, is investigating the links between plant polyphenol compounds and dietary health.

“Dietary polyphenols have been associated with reduced risk of heart disease and fruits such as plums are a rich source of polyphenolic antioxiodants,” she said.

PhD Supervisors for Ms Bondonno and Ms Mubarak are Prof Jonathan Hodgson, Assist Prof Michael Considine and Prof Kevin Croft.

The final presenter at the UWA IOA ‘Frontiers in Agriculture Postgraduate Showcase 2011’ was Pakistani Khalid Bashir of the School of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

His postgraduate studies, jointly funded by UWA and the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF), Pakistan, aim to identify ways of improving food security policies.

Mr Bashir, whose PhD supervisors are Assoc Prof  Steven Schilizzi, Prof Ben White and Assist Prof Ram Pandit, described food insecurity as a ‘global menace’, with 90 per cent of undernourished people living in developing countries.

UWA Institute of Agriculture Director, Winthrop Professor Kadambot Siddique, agreed and said UWA effectively had a seat at the world’s ‘food table’ with its many international collaboration projects and student exchanges, especially with developing countries.

“We believe UWA can contribute positively to global food security and world peace, especially through capacity building and developing novel technologies and we continually strive to do that,” he said.

Media references

Brendon Cant & Associates (+61) 8 9384 1122

Winthrop Professor Kadambot Siddique,

Director, The UWA Institute of Agriculture

(+61) 0411 155 396