Major crop science advance at UQ Gatton

Significant upgrading of UQ Gatton’s Centre for Pesticide Application and Safety heralds a major advance in crop science.

More than $300,000 has been provided in two Australian Research Council grants — one (a Linkage Infrastructure) to help purchase a state-of-the-art laser imaging system and the other (a Linkage Project) for new research over three years.

Centre Director Nicholas Woods says the new Oxford Lasers VisiSizer will be used to study the atomisation of pesticide sprays and droplet behaviour in moving flow fields. It will enable simultaneous measurement of particle size and droplet velocity.

Images constructed of the atomisation process will enable scientists to study the interaction of spray droplets and plant canopies.

The imaging equipment will be installed in a new moveable section of the wind tunnel facility at UQ Gatton. The specialised piece of equipment, which costs about $250,000, should be delivered and operational by mid-2003. The University of Western Sydney is a partner in the venture.

The Oxford Lasers equipment will complement the current Malvern laser diffraction device which has already proved its worth in a range of research projects at Gatton.

“The improved facilities and research grants will enhance our international reputation for excellence in pesticide science,” Mr Woods said.

The wind tunnel has already been used for research by groups from the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand.

A new study funded by the Australian Research Council grant will focus on understanding the interaction of spray droplets with the plant canopy. Accurate placement of pesticide onto plant surfaces is the key to spray efficiency and avoiding loss of chemical into the air and onto the soil.

The research is backed by major chemical companies NuFarm, Syngenta and Bayer Crop Science. It will use sophisticated techniques developed at the Centre for Plant Architecture Informatics, a joint venture between UQ and CSIRO. This work will be validated through wind tunnel experimentation.

Mr Woods said that with the support of the National Research Centre for Environmental Toxicology, a partnered UQ Centre in the project, the research would result in development of a risk assessment tool that could be applied to controlled spray applications of pesticides.

The Research Council grants will also fund scholarships for two PhD students to undertake research using the facilities at Gatton.

“We are calling for student applications and hope to have appointments finalised by March-April,” Mr Woods said.

For further information, contact Nicholas Woods (telephone 07 5460 1293)
or Anthony Smith (telephone 0409 265 587).