Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation

🌏 Happy World Soil Day! Today we join in acknowledging that soil is the foundation of our future. At QAAFI, soil is at the heart of much of what we do from understanding root systems to developing techs and innovations that help farmers build resilience and boost productivity.

🌾 Congrats to Prof David Jordan on his appointment as Chair of the Global Sorghum Association Board! A world-leading sorghum breeder with more than 35 years’ experience, he has led QAAFI’s sorghum breeding program and licensed over 2,500 sorghum lines.🔗globalsorghum.org/board

🥭 Biting into a sweet, juicy mango this summer? Here’s what makes Aussie mangoes truly special.
According to Prof Heather Smyth from QAAFI, Australian mangoes owe their uniquely sweet, tangy flavour to a compound called alpha-terpinolene. ab.co/4ishmTb

QAAFI recently joined Nyanda Aboriginal Cultural Tours and Bush Foods Experience, just outside Brisbane. It was an incredible opportunity to listen, learn, and honour the enduring wisdom of Aboriginal peoples. Big thanks to Dominique Chen for organising this experience.

Flowering discovery could lead to more reliable mungbean yields University of Queensland and Grains Research and Development Corporation-supported research has unlocked new breeding opportunities for mungbean, providing additional genetic tools to develop varieties tailored to specific growing regions.

Did you know that when mungbean flowers and how long it flowers for are separate genetic traits? That disovery could lead to more reliable yields of the important cash crop.

https://bit.ly/4otnHiE

Growing global production of citrus offers opportunities for Australia’s little-known 6 native species. #UQ researcher and PhD candidate Joel Johnson is investigating their chemical composition and nutritional potential.

https://bit.ly/3XckjgO

🌾 Happy National Ag Day! Today we celebrate the people, science and innovation behind Australia’s world-class food and fibre. At QAAFI, we’re proud to work alongside the producers, communities and partners driving a stronger, more sustainable agricultural future.

Australia partners with International Livestock Research Institute to upskill researchers from Africa and Asia. A year-long training program passing on lessons learned here to fellows in Africa and Asia, thanks to ACIAR.

https://bit.ly/3Jrij13

Sorghum research is supercharged by Grain and Research Development Corporation's 7-year multi-million-dollar Sorghum Strategic Alliance with #UQ, announced today at #TropAg2025.

https://bit.ly/4nErSHQ
@theGRCDC

Finding efficiencies in creating jet fuel from plant waste. A ewly opened ARC Research Hub at #UQ is focused on not only creating jet fuel from plant biomass, but also ensuring it's cost-effective and sustainable. Details via the link:

https://bit.ly/3WIsfpS

Peptides to prime plant defence against viruses in vegetables. A 5-year project to develop a chemical-free and cost-effective way to tackle viruses in Australia’s multi-billion-dollar vegetable industry led by #UQ and funded by Hort Innovation and DPI.

bit.ly/4oanNMr

Bridging continents with yams. A collaboration between #UQ and the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji Indigenous community of Far North Qld has turned to Nigerian expertise to renew interest in Australian yams and build First Nation enterprise.

https://bit.ly/42Xky2u

CGIAR

An integrated vision for predicting crop success. Learn about CropVision, an #ARC funded system developed at #UQ by A/Prof Andries Potgieter.
https://bit.ly/47mm7s9

Yesterday, QAAFI celebrated UQ Giving Day with a vibrant presence at the Gatton Agtech Showcase and a warm morning tea gathering at St Lucia 💜🌿All in support of QAAFI’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Agribusiness Research Fund: bit.ly/4qbZE9N

A global leader in plant biotechnology, QAAFI’s Prof Ian Godwin brings more than 30 years of research expertise to advancing gene-edited crops. This week, he shares his insights in Canada, exploring how gene-edited crops and animals are transforming ag. https://bit.ly/3KTaBNf

Future protein foods: plant versus animal sources, nutrient release rates, and gateway products.

#UQ's Professor Mike Gidley shares his views. Read the article in Frontiers in Science.

https://bit.ly/4odUNDs

UQ Giving Day is nearly here! Join us in celebrating across two events on the 15 Oct:

🌱 Level 7, Queensland Bioscience Precinct (St Lucia) - Join us for a special morning tea. bit.ly/4nHOnwo

🚜 Gatton AgTech Showcase – Visit our QAAFI stall. bit.ly/4q1tEVP

🍽️ Webinar happening today: Waste to Taste
Join Dr Jiahua Shi from QAAFI’s Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences as she showcases innovative ways to transform surplus produce and industry by-products into premium food ingredients.

📍uqz.zoom.us/j/85219171771
🕒 12:00pm AEST

A Pacific perspective on food security. Insights from TropAg 2025 plenary speaker Dr Seeseei Molimau-Samasoni, Head of International Development for the Plant & Food Research Group at the Bioeconomy Science Institute of New Zealand.

https://bit.ly/42o4eaU

A breakthrough in cattle genetics 🐮
Prof Ben Hayes is leading research to give northern beef producers a new tool to breed cattle with lower methane emissions — without losing productivity. 📖 Read more: https://ow.ly/p3b650X5osj

Seminar next week: Waste to Taste🍽️
How can surplus produce and food by-products become premium ingredients?

📅 7 October | 📍bit.ly/4nPsXgh

Close up view of bottle brush (Callistemon) flower which is native to Australia By popovj2 on Adobe images

Could the best housemate you’ve ever had be a houseplant? Dr Alice Hayward gives some suggestions to #UQ's Contact.

https://bit.ly/3Il0tfB

Cattle standing in a field with sunset behind them in colours of blue and pink

Calf Alive delivers flexibility for northern cattle producers. Find out more about this project on reproductive efficiency and attend the conference in Longreach in November.

https://bit.ly/3VxoaUT

Co-designing biology and technology to unlock automated plant breeding. Some thinking about ways to reshape the future in crop breeding from Dr Yasmine Lam and Professor Lee Hickey.

bit.ly/48x1mfq

Reimagining agriculture by unlocking genetic potential is the key to addressing the problems in agriculture caused by climate change, says TropAg speaker and University of Florida Prof Charlie Messina.

FInd out more about his plans for change:

bit.ly/423f0Di

🌍 Don’t miss it — today’s seminar with Prof Catherine Propper dives into how pollution impacts everything from cells to ecosystems.

🕑 12:00pm AEST | 📍http://uqz.zoom.us/j/81069386984

The climate-resilient crop breadfruit is the focus of a collaboration between The University of Queensland and the University of the South Pacific looking into its health benefits. It could be the start of a bigger collaboration.

bit.ly/4grA1gN

Macadamia nuts still within green-coloured husk handing from a branch in a field of macadamia trees. Image: Megan Pope, UQ.

A new project from Hort Innovation led by QAAFI's Dr Mobashwer Alam will create trees that can withstand climate change, produce bigger and better-quality nuts earlier, and reduce the production cost burden for Australian growers.

bit.ly/46DSfZ6

Congrats to Prof Lee Hickey for winning the UQ Award for Excellence in Promoting Industry Engagement in Graduate Research. bit.ly/4nsXUa7

His ARC Training Centre in Predictive Breeding bridges academia & industry and helps PhD grads to land top roles. 👏

A spread of food including fish, fruit, grains, vegetables, eggs all bunched up together in a colourful array

Building confidence in food from farm to fork.
@Cargill's Global Vice President of Food Safety, Quality and Regulatory Affairs Sean Leighton is a plenary speaker at
TropAg 2025 in November.
Find out more about what he sees as a chance to lead:

bit.ly/4phWvF1