18-01-2001

AUSTRALIA'S National Dryland Salinity Program chief executive officer Richard Price has welcomed today's decision by the Federal Government to support a Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) for Plant-Based Management of Dryland Salinity.

The new CRC will work with Australia's National Dryland Salinity Program and others to continue essential work in developing practical, solutions-based research for managing dryland salinity - the nation's most significant environmental issue.

Mr Price congratulated the interim chair of the new CRC, Mr Alex Campbell, and interim chief executive officer of the CRC Professor Phillip Cocks in leading the bid to establish the nationally-focused facility, which will be located in Western Australia.

"The CRC for Plant-Based Management of Dryland Salinity is an important step towards further mobilising and assisting Australia's research community to address dryland salinity," said Mr Price.

"The centre will bring together Australia's best researchers in plant-based solutions to salinity, providing a sound educational platform to enhance the existing research base. This will provide practical and creative management solutions by challenging the paradigms of existing research efforts.

"In order for Australia's National Dryland Salinity Program to manage research that leads to the effective management of dryland salinity, it is critical to have access to such a concerted pool of expertise. Such access will help turn the possible - and even the unlikely - into practical, economically-viable solutions to one of our most serious environmental, economic and social threats."

Mr Price said the new CRC, partly funded by Australia's National Dryland Salinity Program, had an overall objective of managing water in the landscape, through profitable farming systems based on perennial plants. Such research, development and extension activities would significantly increase the availability of options to turn problems associated with dryland salinity into solutions.

"Dryland salinity is the major natural resource management issue facing both rural and urban Australia," he said.

"Its impacts are enormous in terms of costs to our environmental heritage, water quality, biodiversity, agricultural productivity and urban and rural infrastructure. The likely increase in the extent of dryland salinity from the current 2.5 million hectares to potentially 15 million hectares presents enormous challenges; virtually every Australian will be affected in some way by the diverse nature of dryland salinity."

Australia's National Dryland Salinity Program is a partnership in research, development and extension tackling the salinity risk to Australia's land and water resources.


For further information please contact:

Please contact Land & Water Australia
Email: land&wateraustralia@lwa.gov.au
Phone: 02 6263 6000