ENVIRONMENT
Environment topics: Agriculture
Feeding a hot, hungry world - agriculture in the face of climate change
Getting the buzz on the value of bees
Weeds – the real alien invaders
Salinity – the awakening monster from the deep
Feeding the future – sustainable agriculture
Is Australian wildlife fair game?
Integrated pest management – the good, the bad and the genetically modified
Biomass – the growing energy resource
Sodicity – a dirty word in Australia
Monitoring the white death – soil salinity
More food, cleaner food – gene technology and plants
A plague on the pest – rabbit calicivirus disease and biological control
Feeding a hot, hungry world - agriculture in the face of climate change
How will we feed the world's population as the planet gets warmer? Climate change is predicted to cause higher temperatures, altered rainfall patterns, and an increase in extreme weather events, all of which will have a significant impact upon global agricultural systems.
Getting the buzz on the value of bees
Australian agriculture has been getting a free ride from honeybees for nearly 200 years. Their pollination services are worth several billion dollars a year, but Australia's honeybees are under increasing threat, including from a mite known as Varroa destructor.
Sponsored by:
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Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry |
Weeds – the real alien invaders
They’re green, they’re mean, and they cost Australia billions of dollars each year. Invasive weeds threaten the environment, agriculture, and people’s health – and the threat is growing.
Sponsored by:
 |
Salinity – the awakening monster from the deep
Salinity is making more and more of our land unusable and our water undrinkable.
Sponsored by:
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CRC for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration |
Feeding the future – sustainable agriculture
With the population exceeding 6 billion and growing by about 6 million a month, the need to protect agricultural land and to increase food production has become critical. Does sustainable agriculture have the answers?
Sponsored by:
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CSIRO Division of Plant Industry | and the bequest of J S Anderson, FAA. |
Is Australian wildlife fair game?
Is the growing commercial use of Australian wildlife compatible with good conservation?
Sponsored by:
 |
Integrated pest management – the good, the bad and the genetically modified
Twenty-five years ago cotton cultivation was abandoned in Western Australia's Ord River valley because of an uncontrollable infestation of two native caterpillars. Now researchers are trialling an integrated pest management strategy that could allow cotton to be grown there again.
Sponsored by:
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Biomass – the growing energy resource
Energy from biomass is sparking interest amongst scientists, policy makers and growers as they search for clean, renewable energy alternatives.
Sponsored by:
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the Australian Government's National Innovation Awareness Strategy |
Sodicity – a dirty word in Australia
Soil sodicity hasn’t hit the headlines yet, but in terms of area and impact it far outweighs salinity as a problem in Australia.
Sponsored by:
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CRC for Soil and Land Management | |
the Australian Government's National Innovation Awareness Strategy |
Monitoring the white death – soil salinity
New technology is being used to help monitor the extent of dryland salinity threatening large areas of Australia's agricultural zone.
Sponsored by:
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Land Monitor Project | |
the Australian Government's National Innovation Awareness Strategy |
More food, cleaner food – gene technology and plants
Gene technology, also known as genetic engineering, involves manipulating or transferring genetic material within or between organisms. It has the potential to improve agricultural yields and reduce the application of pesticides.
Sponsored by:
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CSIRO Division of Plant Industry |
A plague on the pest – rabbit calicivirus disease and biological control
The accidental release of the rabbit calicivirus from Wardang Island in October 1995 is yet another development in the story of Australia's efforts to control pests.
Sponsored by:
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the Australian Government's National Innovation Awareness Strategy |