More than 150 rice growers, students and stakeholders from around the region gathered last week to inspect and discuss the best technology and thoughts offered in the rice industry.
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Based at ‘Old Coree’ near Jerilderie, the Rice Industry Field Day invited speakers from the most unique corners of rice cropping to give a truthful and speculative insight into ‘Rice Innovation –
Restacking the shelves’, which was Rice Research Australia’s chosen theme.
Among the speakers were SunRice head of sustainability Lynette Ryan, rice breeder and Department of Primary Industries representative Peter Snell and Deakin University’s Centre Regional & Rural Future Associate Professor John Hornbuckle.
The speculative theme was a nod to the demand for rice as one of the first staple foods that was restricted in response to panic buying due to COVID-19, and 2021’s promising outlook for ricegrowers across the region.
While the majority of the field day focused on the positive future of the Australian rice industry, RiceGrowers Association of Australia president Rob Massina said the day wasn’t entirely optimistic.
The industry, Mr Massina said, is at a crossroads of trying to increase efficiency while wrangling a steady reduction in resources.
‘‘We are looking at two different stories here,’’ Mr Massina said.
‘‘Obviously, the industry is subject to the water supply.
‘‘Erosion of water entitlements has put the pressure on and increased variability.
‘‘We use half the world’s average water to grow a kilo of rice.
‘‘Australia has the most efficient growers in the world, and we are trying to better that by 100 per cent.
‘‘We want to be able to grow high yielding crops with a lot of different programs.’’
Mr Massina said the Southern Riverina should be immensely proud of its rice industry, and the companies that enable it.
‘‘What I would like the people in the Southern Riverina to know is that SunRice is one of the only Australian owned supply chains.
‘‘There are very few of these left in Australia. We should be very proud of it, and through thinking ahead, we are trying to minimise the harm caused to it,’’ Mr Massina said.
SunRice Group Chairman Laurie Arthur reinforced the industry’s commitment to continuing innovation, and spoke about the increased production throughout the Riverina.
‘‘After two extremely difficult years for Riverina rice production — driven by low water availability, extremely high water prices and the impacts of water reform — it’s pleasing to see an improvement in conditions and an increase in rice production,’’ Mr Arthur said.
‘‘Harvesting has already started on a crop estimated to be more than 450,000 paddy tonnes, which is some 10 times the size of the 2020 crop which was the second lowest on record.
‘‘A total of 411 growers have planted rice across 674 farms, with some 44,000 hectares planted in the Murrumbidgee, Coleambally and Murray valleys.
‘‘The fact growers have returned to rice production shows that it is a perfect fit for the farming systems in the Riverina — and that when growers have improved water availability they can increase production.’’
The C21 Rice Industry Awards were also launched at the field day, giving growers across the region an opportunity to be recognised for their efforts.
Rice extension officer Harriet Brickhill kicked off the awards and challenged growers to nominate their neighbours.
‘‘Growers are typically pretty humble and so it’s sometimes a tough ask to get them to put up their own hand.
‘‘We have a bumper number of growers this year and we really want to see growers acknowledging their peers that are doing great things for the industry.’’
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