$13 million research facility nears completion in Narrabri

The doors of the state-of-the-art International Centre of Crop and Digital Farming will soon open as the $13 million Newell Highway development nears completion.

A flurry of construction work is continuing in anticipation of the project’s practical completion in September.

It is hoped staff will begin to move into the centre later this year.

An estimated 200 people, including various contractors, have worked on the massive development at the Plant Breeding Institute.

The project is a collaboration between the NSW government, the University of Sydney, Australian Grain Technologies (AGT), the Wheat Research Foundation and GRDC.

University of Sydney director of northern agriculture Associate Professor Guy Roth said the new research facility will take the Narrabri site’s research capabilities to a greater level.

“It will allow for future growth and expansion, more students and a greater diversity of projects,” he
said.

The focus of the International Centre of Crop and Digital Farming will be on global food security and agribusiness support for the 21st century.

The new centre will further consolidate Narrabri as a leading hub of regional, national and international agricultural research.

The new building will support a doubling of employment on-site to 80 staff and attract post-graduate students and researchers from around the world.

Funding has also allowed AGT to expand its footprint at the highway site, taking up greater space in the current International Grains Research Centre.

AGT previously shared space in the centre with the University of Sydney.

However, the redevelopment of the building will enable AGT to have a larger footprint at the research hub.

Narrabri manager Tim Kapcejevs has welcomed the development and the possibilities it brings AGT.

The larger space provides AGT with the potential to look at other projects in the future.

Coupled with the adjoining development, the updated and new facilities will continue to cement Narrabri’s pivotal role as a hub of research.

The International Centre of Crop and Digital Farming building follows a significant NSW government grant bolstered by additional investment by the University of Sydney, the Wheat Research Foundation, the Grains Research Development Corporation and Australian Grain Technologies.

The University of Sydney and Wheat Research Foundation have been collaborating for more than 60 years at Narrabri.

Based at the 2000-hectare University of Sydney Plant Breeding Institute, on land owned by the Wheat Research Foundation, the new complex will house genetic and agronomy laboratories alongside digital and robotic workplaces and meeting space to support research and industry engagement.

“The facility will produce improved and adapted crop varieties and traits for NSW farmers, the national grains industry and international collaborators,” a spokesperson previously told The Courier.

“It will develop farming systems with enhanced resilience and adaptive capacity to climate change and agronomic challenges such as drought and heat extremes and promote digital and robotic technologies for use by farmers and agribusiness to make their businesses more productive and profitable.”

Central research interests at the centre will include wheat, chickpeas, faba beans and other summer crops as well as addressing farming system challenges such as weed management, soil science, emerging crops and field robotics and digital agriculture.