Enhancing productivity and profitability in farming systems in Central NSW

Reference number: PROC-9177230

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Release date:: Thursday 20 March 2025
Closing time:: Wednesday 14 May 2025, at 05:00 PM ACT local time
Enquiry deadline:: Wednesday 07 May 2025, at 05:00 PM ACT local time

Summary

The investment aims to reduce yield gaps in the Central NSW sub-regions by addressing key farming decisions related to nutrition, crop protection, and planting. Activities will be tailored to local conditions, leveraging professional agronomists, research, and extension resources to enhance productivity and profitability. Hyper-yielding aspects and resource efficiencies will also be examined to understand environmental and sustainability aspects.

This investment will adopt a participatory approach with growers and advisors to identify and address issues most relevant to the targeted regions. The process will involve identifying constraints, referencing existing research, developing new practices, and implementing action plans. Monitoring and evaluating project outcomes through on-farm trials and demonstrations will be integral to this approach. Peer-to-peer learning and the guidance of research and consulting agronomists will help growers understand and implement necessary changes.

Regional strategies and localised action plans will be continually reviewed and refined to build growers' knowledge and confidence, promoting practice change and adoption. Extension activities will support knowledge for decision-making, utilising multiple channels such as field walks, presentations, webinars, and podcasts. A detailed monitoring and evaluation plan will measure progress and effectiveness, ensuring that activities are impactful for growers and align with the five-year goal of reducing yield gaps.

Offer period

Offers will remain open for acceptance by the GRDC for a period of 6 months after the Closing Time.

Document contact and enquiries

Attention: Camilla Pettersson
Grains Research and Development Corporation
Email: camilla.pettersson@grdc.com.au

Make all requests for further information or clarification in relation to this procurement in writing (email) prior to 7 May 2025.

GRDC will publish all requests and responses to requests on the GRDC website under Questions and Answers at the bottom of this webpage.

Consortia response

GRDC will accept Tenders from Consortia.

Lodgement of Tender

Submit your Tender response electronically through the Grains Investment Portal.

AusTender

https://www.tenders.gov.au/Advert/Show/93cc54ec-3dcc-4498-ba21-85cfb1d44969

Description

The Central West and East NSW sub-regions has some of the lowest relative crop yields in Australia and this investment seeks to reduce these yield gaps in these Central NSW subregions and lift averages closer to nearby locations and regional averages. GRDC seeks to address this with a 5-year investment to identify and benchmark current practices in the Central NSW sub-regions to close yield gaps. These plans will be tailored to local conditions, addressing agronomy, soil and water limitations, crop protection, and leveraging professional agronomists, research, and extension resources to enhance productivity and profitability in Central NSW.

This investment will unpack opportunities to close the yield gap by examining key decisions made on farm which are associated with nutrition (soils and crop), crop protection (pest weeds and diseases) and planting (crop and seasonal influences). Additionally, hyper-yielding aspects will be examined to understand the unconstrained yield potential, establishing a performance benchmark. Similarly, resource efficiencies (including water use efficiency and carbon/emissions intensity) will be considered to understand environmental and sustainability aspects. These elements effectively represent five workstreams which will be undertaken throughout the course of the investment with a sixth area to investigate sustainable options for retaining and building agronomic services and extension capacities and capabilities in the sub-region for the longer term.

This investment should be designed to examine key decisions on farm in relation to these five workstreams and facilitate a ground up approach to direct investigations that more effectively link with current and latest research yet validated locally. The participatory approach with growers and advisors will increase engagement and adoption by first establishing issues that are most relevant to those targeted by the investment; and then working collaboratively to develop new practices to address the challenges associated with these issues. Staging needs to include the following phases across the five workstreams:

identify issues and constraints with farmers and advisors (relative to each workstream) and identify key bottlenecks and levers contributing to yield gaps,
identify existing research that informs issues and consider localisation of this work,
develop new practices and facilitate adoption (local action plans) by working collaboratively with researchers, advisors and farmers
implement action plans, observe and make refinements
progressively monitor and evaluate project outcomes.

Peer-to-peer learning and the guidance of research and consulting agronomists play a key role in helping growers understand and implement behavioural and practice changes. This investment will integrate the best and most current knowledge on systems agronomy and insights from the five workstreams to assess potential risks and profit opportunities and align these with local action plans. It is expected the investment will also draw on existing capacity and capabilities existing outside of these sub-regions to support innovations. Approaches to include on-farm trials and demonstrations, supported by robust agronomic data collection, facilitated and informed decision-making discussions and monitoring and evaluation of these decision support and extension activities. On-farm trials will be aligned with the latest in standardised approaches to paddock scale experimentation (where possible).

Regional strategies (supported by localised action plans) will have a stop/go point within the first year of the investment to ensure these are targeted, have clear research questions established and linked to existing (eg: National Paddock Survey data) and emerging research developments and investments. It is expected the investment will work collaboratively with farmers and advisors and overcome localised issues and constraints in developing regional strategies and localised action plans that are fit for purpose for farming practices. These are to be continually reviewed and refined to build the knowledge and confidence of growers to underpin and support practice change leading to adoption.

Growers are to be actively engaged through local sites where they can compare results and access updated information with traditional and non-traditional dissemination activities and tools used to used ensure growers and agronomists can easily follow progress and participate in discussions. Detailed agronomic measurements will enable comparisons between forecasted models and actual outcomes based on seasonal conditions allowing growers to evaluate best management practices in relation to real-world conditions in their local area.

Extension activities are to support knowledge for decision making and adoption and rely on multiple channels including but not limited to usual activities such as field walks, presentations, technical manuals, webinars, and podcasts. A detailed monitoring and evaluation plan will be developed to assess and measure progress and effectiveness of extension activities and monitor trajectories towards the 5-year goal of reducing yield gaps. This will be developed by a monitoring and evaluation specialist supporting the investment across the five years. These specialist services will sit parallel to or within the proposed services to be procured and will ensure consolidation of existing successful actions and efforts and/or pivoting to re-align activities to ensure local action plans are impactful for growers. Evaluation activities can be embedded into existing capacity and monitoring efforts, establish a new framework of action or be a mix of these that are commensurate with the investment and activities being undertaken.

The investment aims to directly engage a significant number of participants leveraging digital and online channels and proponents could consider the opportunity (if applicable) to test digital outputs, provide early user field experience and feedback of GRDC’s of digital extension investment, MyGRDC.

Reporting will include: i) annual workplan, ii) mid-year progress report and iii) annual results which will incorporate the five workstreams with reporting on evaluation of extension activities that draws on metrics of grower engagement and participation rates and effectiveness. Supporting or secondary indicators can be investigated to support impact measurements over time. For example, the potential use of CSIRO’s annual crop performance and yield gap analysis data (APSIM and APSIM NG) to monitor changes to regional and sub-regional averages over the investment. This investment aims to maintain and build on existing development and extension activities across Central NSW, providing growers and advisers with access to new and essential cropping information through various channels. With the goal of reducing yield gaps by maximising the effectiveness of grower engagement, proposals who seek collaboration and linkages across farming system groups to identify and implement the best farming practices that will lead to improvements in productivity and profitability will be looked upon favourably. GRDC encourages collaborative and multi-party proposals including the required diversity of expertise for the scale of this investment or indicate the willingness to work with a variety of parties and clearly articulate how these linkages will work operationally.

Outcome

Outputs

Title	Description
Output 1. Benchmark yield potential and system performance to close the yield gap and build regional capacity	At project commencement, consult with growers, researchers and service providers to identify factors driving water limited yield potential, including current D&E capacity. It will: 1. Benchmark performance of farms across Central NSW and identify priorities for practice change that builds off an initial core program of work focusing on nutrition, crop establishment and crop protection. 2. Use current regional advisory capacity benchmarks and deliver a core program of works to identify a sustainable D&E business model for Central NSW. An independent specialist will be engaged to develop a framework and plan for project Monitoring and Evaluation. Details include: Synthesise current knowledge, data and insights. Use current D&E capacity benchmarks and establish ‘lift’ targets to address (Deliver Regional Strategy and plan to address) Establish benchmarks and productivity targets to close the yield gap. Evaluate current practice and farming system performance Identify opportunities and constraints to achieve step change improvements in productivity Determine localised value pools and priorities to close the yield gap (relative to project outputs) Framework for project Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)
Output 2. Cropping options and planting based decisions to improve crop establishment	Description: By March 2026 (recurring annually), develop information resources, local practices and action plans to help growers to be more informed around planting-based decisions for Central West NSW and to improve crop establishment. Details include: Establish core program of work to improve cropping options and planting based on best practice. Investigate climate and crop phenology interactions for canola and wheat informing variety selection Assessment of pulses which provide a best fit for central NSW farming systems. Improve crop establishment practices by addressing critical constraints limiting early crop development. Investigate technology options such as precision planting and variable rate equipment
Output 3. Strategic and tactical nutrient and soil (constraint) management	Description: By March 2026 (recurring annually), develop information resources, local practices and action plans to help growers to address key crop nutrition constraints for Central West NSW that aligns with GRDC’s broader nutritional strategy and achieves step change improvements. Details include: Establish core program of work to improve crop nutrition based on best practice. Provide local validation of new and emerging research targeting crop nutritional (fertiliser) requirements. Address soil constraints to enhance farming system improvements Investigate emerging and enabling technologies to implement practice change (incorporating precision agriculture for targeted nutrient management) to realise associated productivity improvements.
Output 4. Address crop protection constraints to farm productivity and profitability	Description: By March 2026 (recurring annually), develop information resources, local practices and action plans to help growers to help growers address the key crop protection constraints to farm productivity and profitability for Central West NSW. Details include: Establish core program of work to improve crop protection based on best practice. Provide local validation of new and emerging research in crop protection (and integrated approaches). Identify farming systems and practices that offset costs and provide long term / sustainable solutions to crop protection. Examine the dynamics of farm profitability through case studies that considers high to low levels of farming inputs at low WLYP. Investigate the utility and benefit / cost of new technologies such as proximal and remote sensing, monitoring systems, decision support tools and variable rate technologies (for targeted management).
Output 5. Report sustainability credentials including water use efficiency and emissions intensity	Description: By March 2026 (recurring annually), report sustainability credentials including water use efficiency and emissions (carbon) intensity that relates productivity, profitability and sustainability. Details include: Benchmark water use efficiency and emissions (carbon) intensity Locally validate emerging farming systems research (i.e. water use efficiency) and sustainability (i.e. low emissions intensity) initiatives. Qualify project outcomes relative to profitability, productivity and sustainability.

Proposed Budget

Proposed Contract & Term

GRDC will contract under the terms of the GRDC Standard Two-Party Research Contract.

The schedule(s) attached to the contract will detail the project details: the outcomes, outputs, milestones, budget, participating personnel and required intellectual property.

The template Contract containing the proposed terms and conditions is available from Application resources page on the GRDC website.

It is anticipated that any resultant contract in relation to this procurement will commence with a proposed term of 5 years.

Conditions for Participation

The following are mandatory conditions with which a Tenderer must comply to participate in this procurement process:

The Tenderer must be a single legal entity or recognised firm of partners except where the Tender is submitted by a consortium and the Tender specifies that each member of the proposed consortium will be party to the contract.
The Tenderer and any proposed subcontractor must be compliant with the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012, the Modern Slavery Act 2018 and any other applicable labour laws and standards in the jurisdiction in which they operate.
The Tenderer and any subcontractor must not have a judicial decision against it (not including decisions under appeal) relating to employee entitlements and who have not paid the claim.
The Tenderer and any subcontractor must not be named on the Consolidated List, being the list of persons and entities who are subject to targeted financial sanctions or travel bans under Australian sanction laws, as maintained by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
In accordance with the Black Economy Procurement Connected Policy, a Tenderer must include a satisfactory and valid Statement of Tax Records (STR). If the total value of all work under any proposed subcontract is expected to be equal to or above $4 million (inclusive of GST), also include a separate satisfactory and valid STR of that proposed subcontractor.

Minimum Form and Content Requirements

The following are the mandatory content and format requirements that the Tenderer must complete and provide to participate in this procurement process:

Submit Tenders using the Grains Investment Portal.
Write Tenders in English and express any measurements in Australian legal units of measurement.
Budget details must be submitted on the ‘GRDC Budget Template’ provided in the Grains Investment Portal.

Evaluation Criteria

In the table below are the Evaluation Criteria that the Tender Evaluation Team will use to assess the value for money of all Tenders.

No	Type	Weighting
1	Technical – Qualitative evaluation criteria related to non-price factors such as methodology, project plan, track record, experience.
1a	A clear and thorough plan to achieve the project outputs, specifying: a) method to be used (including anticipated statistical analysis capacity) b) proposed milestones c) proposed locations of field experiments (if required to deliver project outputs) d) staffing (including relevant skills, experience and availability of key personnel and proposed subcontractors) e) budget (defining the funds sought in each year of the project and the potential investment from all parties) f) project structure and management arrangements	20%
1b	Demonstrated track record of the project team, including: a) relevant achievements of the project leader in providing leadership, co-ordination, management, monitoring and evaluation and the timely delivery of high quality outputs b) relevant technical knowledge and experience of all key personnel (including proposed subcontractors) in the research area c) relevant achievements in the delivery of commercial IP (if relevant) d) ability of the project team to collaborate with the relevant research organisations and industry personnel to build on the research (national and international) already undertaken in this area	15%
1c	An overview of your approach to data management in accordance with GRDC RD&E Data Management Guidelines, including: existing data that you intend to use during the project and any potential restrictions on its use, including in publication or commercialisation of the intended project outputs how all data will be managed during the investment new valuable data that will be created during the project and the Approved Repository where it will be stored. Note: We recommend searching the GRDC Data Catalogue for data that could be used in your proposed work, either by negating the need to generate new data or by adding to analyses being carried out.	15%
1d	A summary of the IP including: existing IP that you intend to use during the project and whether this would cause any restrictions on the use, publication or commercialisation of the intended project outputs new IP that may be created in the course of the project how IP will be managed.	10%
1e	Proven expertise and capability of the project team across the five workstreams, capacity benchmarking and monitoring and evaluation of impact performance. Including demonstrated expertise in: Developing and maintaining grower networks in GRDC’s Northern region and extension methodology design and delivery Coordination and facilitation skills of the project team particularly in managing grower facing projects and facilitating growers for consistent (same) grower participation over time (eg 5 years). Ensuring timely delivery of high-quality outputs, engaging effectively with stakeholders and industry bodies, and navigating multi-stakeholder environments Capacity to collaborate effectively with national research organisations, industry personnel and relevant stakeholder capacity to learn from and build on existing research	40%
2	Price - The tendered budget.	N/A
3	Risk - Risks inherent in the application including the degree of compliance with the draft contract and any actual or perceived conflict of interest.	N/A
4	Australian economy - The economic benefit of the procurement to the Australian economy.	N/A

Lodging a Tender

Questions and Answers

Q1. Why is no budget declared on the proposal? Details of indicative budget allows tenders to design program to suit the scale and scope as dictated by the budget. Please advise how you do not end up with a very inefficient tender process and inability to compare tenders (as they will come in with different scale and scope).

A1. GRDC invites applicants to submit their innovative and well-thought-out methodologies in response to the requested tender. We highly value creativity and thoroughness in your approach. Additionally, we encourage applicants to present a detailed and realistic budget that accurately reflects the scope and requirements of the works that have been proposed.