Development and extension to close the economic yield gap and maximise farming systems benefits from grain legume production in Victoria

This investment will deliver local development and extension to close the economic yield gap and maximise faming systems benefits from grain legume production. This will be achieved through the delivery of a hub and spoke model of delivery for grower-driven grain legume validation and demonstration trials across Victorian sub-regions to address these gaps.

Three major validation (hub) sites will focus on a combination of sub-regional grower driven D&E priorities and extension of new research learnings from aligned projects delivering a series of fully replicated trial designs. Six on farm demonstration (spoke) sites will focus on-farm with one to two trials at each site which may include full scale strip trials, and/or small demonstration plot trials driven by local grower D&E priorities.

Trials undertaken as part of the investment will cover the following:

1. Economic impacts of grain legumes on farm profitability
2. Disease and integrated weed management strategies in grain legumes
3. Flexible responses to emerging grower issues.

Other key components include the delivery of flexible extension activities linked to each of the sites, and monitoring and evaluation to benchmark and undertake some preliminary assessment of long-term impacts.