Program 4: Screening of elite breeder material transitioning to a fee for service model.

The total average annual losses from Barley foliar diseases are currently estimated to be $301 million. Approximately, 45% or $134 million of the total losses can be attributed to the three most damaging necrotrophic leaf fungi, Spot Form Net Blotch (SFNB), Net Form Net Blotch (NFNB) and Scald. Australian grain producers have widely adopted conservation agriculture farming principles, partly in response to altered rainfall patterns and the need to conserve moisture. In doing so, retention of crop residues to maintain soil cover has increased dramatically and as a consequence, inoculum loads of necrotrophic pathogens that are carried on the residue of diseased crops have increased in both size and longevity. In response, growers have become more reliant on chemical and genetic disease control strategies. While chemcial controls are largely effective against SFNB, NFNB and Scald there is emerging evidence of SFNB and NFNB pathogens developing resistance to fungicides. Additionally, mutliple chemical applications are often required for effective disease control significantly increasing on farm costs. Durable genetic resistance is the most economic and effective means of disease control for these three diseases, but there is little genetic resistance available for these diseases in current barley varieties. The purpose of this investment is to enable the development of new barley varieites with increased genetic resistance to NFNB, SFNB and Scald.

This investment consists of four programs of work as follows:

PROC-9176089 Program 1: Development of international pathogen / host diversity sets - please refer to the Austender page for this procurement number.

PROC-9176090 Program 2: Surveillance and monitoring of pathogen populations - please refer to the Austender page for this procurement number.

PROC-9176091 Program 3: Screening of diverse barley germplasm for novel sources of resistance - please refer to the Austender page for this procurement number.

PROC-9176092 Program 4: Screening of elite breeder material transitioning to a fee for service model - this procurement.

Industry access to a reliable, high-throughput disease screening capacity is a critical component of an effective NFNB, SFNB and Scald improvement effort. This program will support the development of high throughput and accurate NFNB, SFNB and Scald screening methods and facilities using standardised techniques, isolates, controls and well characterised testing environments. The establishment of this infrastructure will enable Australian barley breeders to accelerate and expand efforts to deploy new and durable NFNB, SFNB and Scald resistance in barley varieties to Australian growers. It is anticipated that by the start of the third year (2022) of the investment the screening of elite breeder material will transition to a fee for service model.

Output 4: From 2020, a minimum of 200 barley breeding lines from Australian breeding companies screened for resistance to available NFNB, SFNB and Scald pathotypes.

Applicants can apply for any combination of Programs.

For full details on the ATM and any associated attachments as well as information on any Questions and Answers relating to the ATM, visit https://grdc.com.au/research/applying-and-reporting/current-procurement/open-tenders