IN the past 10 years 38 agricultural science graduates have successfully completed fourth year honours research projects with The University of Western Australia (UWA) based Western Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (WAHRI).

To celebrate the achievement, a reunion of former honours students was held at UWA's Institute of Agriculture last week.

At the March 2010 WAHRI Reunion at The University of Western Australia's Crawley campus were former and current staff and former WAHRI fourth year honours students / Image: Courtesy UWA Institute of Agriculture

In 1997 the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) decided a new research team was needed to respond to herbicide resistance problems emerging in WA cropping systems and WAHRI was the result.

Funded by GRDC, Australian Research Council (ARC) and UWA, it is located in the School of Plant Biology, Faculty of Natural & Agricultural Sciences, at UWA's Crawley campus.

WAHRI founding Director, Winthrop Professor Stephen Powles, is an international authority on all aspects of herbicide resistance, from basic biochemical understanding of how plants evolve resistance, through to practical on-farm management.
 
A passionate advocate of using crop and chemical rotations to delay the onset of herbicide resistance, he is well known for his catch-phrase of "When on a good thing, don't stick to it".

Comments (0)