August 11, 2003

The Council of Grain Grower Organisations and the Western Australia Department of Agriculture have entered a new research partnership to speed the return of Albus lupins to WA’s lupin growers.

Under the agreement the Council of Grain Grower Organisations (COGGO) will invest $240,000 over four years into the Department’s Albus lupin breeding program.

COGGO Chairman Bruce Piper said the partnership would ensure that the pioneering work of the Department’s lupin breeders in breeding anthracnose resistance was brought to fruition in the shortest possible time.

"The Albus lupin industry came to an end in 1996 when the fungal disease anthracnose devastated Albus lupin crops in the State’s northern grainbelt and ended what was a promising new industry," Mr Piper said. 

"In 1997, Department lupin breeder Bevan Buirchell and Clive Francis of Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA) found disease resistance in an Albus lupin line from Ethiopia and crosses have since transferred the resistance into the susceptible Kiev Mutant," he said

COGGO’s investment will build on initial support from the GRDC and would help fast-track the release of the first resistant lines in 2004 or 2005 with commercial production in 2006 or 2007.  COGGO and the Department would be seeking interested growers to participate in seed increase prior to release. It is anticipated that the first releases would have resistance equivalent to Belara narrow leafed lupin. 

Department of Agriculture Executive Director Plant Industries Rob Delane welcomed the COGGO investment.

“The new partnership will ensure rapid industry-led commercialisation of the anthracnose resistant lines," Mr Delane said.

"The Department would increasingly look to strategic alliances and joint venture partners such as COGGO in plant breeding and commercialisation of new varieties," he said.

COGGO Chairman Bruce Piper said the grower based private investment group was considering similar investments to complement its interests in wheat, canola and now Albus lupin breeding.