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Integration of cost effective and sustainable management strategies for wheat foliar diseases in the Southern Region and Southern NSW

Integration of cost effective and sustainable management strategies for wheat foliar diseases in the Southern Region and Southern NSW

Reference number: PROC-9177183

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Release date:: Thursday 12 December 2024
Closing time:: Thursday 30 January 2025, at 05:00 PM ACT local time
Enquiry deadline:: Friday 17 January 2025, at 05:00 PM ACT local time

Summary

Wheat foliar diseases including Septoria tritici blotch (STB), Stripe Rust (SR) and Wheat powdery mildew (WPM) continue to challenge growers’ decision making and profitability, despite development of resistant varieties, extensive research in integrated disease management (IDM) strategies and development of decision support tools. GRDC has invested in understanding the drivers of epidemiology of these diseases and now has an extensive knowledge base to inform and demonstrate to growers how to implement economical IDM strategies with confidence. This investment will validate, demonstrate and communicate cost-effective integrated management strategies related to varietal resistance, fungicide input costs and yield impacts, for wheat foliar diseases, to all wheat growing regions and rainfall zones of the Southern Region and Southern NSW.

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: Georgina Owens
Grains Research and Development Corporation
Email: tenders@grdc.com.au

Make all requests for further information or clarification in relation to this procurement in writing (email) prior to 17 January 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 not accept Tenders from Consortia.

Lodgement of Tender

Submit your Tender response electronically through the Grains Investment Portal.

AusTender

TBC

Description

Wheat foliar diseases such as Septoria tritici blotch (STB), Stripe Rust (SR) and Wheat powdery mildew (WPM) can reduce grain quality and cause yield losses of up to 70% in susceptible varieties in conducive years. Recent surveillance reports have identified STB and SR as the most prevalent foliar diseases that impact wheat productivity in the Southern Region and Southern NSW. The increased incidence and distribution of these wheat foliar diseases is largely due to current intensive farming practices, including planting susceptible varieties and stubble retention, which have led to inoculum build-up. Additionally, the wheat foliar disease pathogens STB and WPM have the potential to rapidly evolve fungicide resistance/insensitivity as experienced in Australia and overseas.

Through recent GRDC research and development investments, we have an improved understanding of the epidemiology of wheat foliar diseases and developed IDM strategies.

Key results from research on the epidemiology of STB in the low and medium rainfall zones and development in management strategies for STB and WPM, have highlighted rainfall (frequency and amount) as the dominant factor for disease severity and spread, that greater yield losses are associated with susceptible cultivars that in turn require fungicide application to avoid yield loss.

Further developed IDM strategies for STB in the high rainfall zone (HRZ) of the Southern region, also highlight that more susceptible cultivars incurred greater yield loss from STB and subsequently required an increased number of fungicide applications and input costs to prevent yield loss. The trial data results indicated no significant difference in yield between applying a 2-fungicide application strategy (GS31 & GS39) and a 4-fungicide application strategy (seed dressing, GS31, GS39 & GS59) with the exception being susceptible cultivars in high disease pressure years.

GRDC now seek a suitable partner to demonstrate and validate these findings so that wheat growers of the Southern region and southern NSW have knowledge of the short-term and long-term relevance of varietal responses, rotations, disease thresholds of wheat foliar diseases so that economical integrated disease management strategies are adopted.

This project will harness the existing potential of currently available cultivars, fungicides and agronomic systems and tools.

Outcome

Outputs

Output 1.

By July 2025, a review report on the local and international knowledge and management strategies of wheat foliar diseases.

Primary Category: Information

Secondary Category: Build on

Description:

Review and compile all recent RD&E output results and data.
Review current national and international integrated disease and resistance management strategies and tools and technologies for wheat foliar diseases
Review report will inform Outputs 2, 3, and 4.

Next User: Research Partners, GRDC

Estimated Output Completion Date: 2/07/2025

Path to Adoption – Comms & Extension

Description: Compiled information will inform the delivery method of extension for Outputs 2, 3, & 4.

Funding Source: Included in this Investment

Output 2.

By June 2028, cost-effective integrated management strategies and supportive tools for wheat foliar diseases will be validated in the Southern region and southern NSW.

Primary Category: Practice

Secondary Category: Alteration to existing

Description:

Investigate stubble management strategies, including pathogen survival periods and pathogen dispersal.
Validate predictive model-based tools that forecast disease risk and inform fungicide application currently in development by DAW2112-002RTX.
Validate spore trapping technologies to determine relationship between spore release trends and subsequent risks to the crops in a region.

Next User: Australian Grain Growers, Advisers to Grain Growers, GRDC

Estimated Output Completion Date: 31/05/2028

Path to Adoption – Comms & Extension

Description: Utilise demonstration sites to validate and demonstrate new tools and technologies. Growers and agronomists will see and experience the validation of the tools in their growing environment, as extended through extension activities.

Funding Source: Included in this Investment

Output 3.

By July 2025, and annually thereafter, develop and deliver a communication and extension strategy.

Primary Category: Information

Secondary Category: Build on

Description:

Detail objectives, key messages, target audience, extension activities, communication publications and media.
Deliver a legacy publication on wheat foliar diseases management including economic guidelines.
Extend messaging via existing communication platforms*, developed in consultation with GRDC.
Deliver validation and demonstration trial reports ensuring data uploaded to the ‘Online Farm Trials’ website.
Develop a plan to monitor and evaluate grower practice change to determine levels of adoption and any barriers to best practice management.

*communication platforms may include GRDC and AFREN.

Next User: Australian Grain Growers, Advisers to Grain Growers

Estimated Output Completion Date: 31/05/2028

Path to Adoption – Comms & Extension

Description: Utilise information from review of Output 1. Developed C&E plan will inform targeted activities at demonstration sites to drive adoption of practice change. The M&E plan will ensure targeted and measurable activity outputs will be reported

Funding Source: Included in this Investment

Output 4.

By June 2028, cost effective integrated management strategies for wheat foliar diseases demonstrated and extended for grower implementation in Southern region and southern NSW.

Primary Category: Practice

Secondary Category: Alteration to existing

Description: Wheat foliar disease IDM strategies will include:

Fungicide application; timing, and with or without seed dressing
Stubble load management and break crop/ rotations
Wheat foliar disease resistant/susceptible varieties
At least 9 demonstration sites* and extension events per annum across rainfall zones and subregions of SA (~3), Vic (~3), TAS (~1), NSW (~2).

* demonstration sites will be made available as platforms for communication and extension activities by related GRDC Investments including AFREN.
* demonstration site may include a managed environment facility (MEF) to simulate disease-favourable conditions.

Next User: Australian Grain Growers, Advisers to Grain Growers, GRDC

Estimated Output Completion Date: 31/05/2028

Path to Adoption – Comms & Extension

Description: IDM for wheat foliar diseases demonstrated and extended for grower implementation. At least 9 demonstration sites and extension events per annum across rainfall zones and subregions of SA (~3), Vic (~3), TAS (~1), NSW (~2).

Funding Source: Included in this Investment

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 on the 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 3 Years 4 Months.

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
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.

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 arrangement	60%
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	35%
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.	5%
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