A thriving crop of The University of Western Australia postgraduate students have the AW Howard Memorial Trust to thank for giving their agricultural research projects the financial support to grow.

There was much cause for celebration when UWA School of Agriculture and Environment (SAgE) PhD candidate Julian van der Zanden received the AW Howard Memorial Trust Postgraduate Research Fellowship in late 2021.

“I certainly hope the recognition will lend some extra credence to my research and make future employers or collaborators more amenable to work with me,” Mr van der Zanden said.

The Fellowship will assist his research, which aims to identify the genetic control of biosynthesis of selected secondary compounds in the annual pasture legume subterranean clover.

“Ultimately, I hope to decipher the genetic regulation of the secondary compounds to enhance the capacity to develop cultivars with novel benefits for animal health and welfare,” he said.

“Such benefits will aid the profitability and the long-term sustainability of farming systems.”

Image: Julian van der Zanden, Ruby Wiese, Wesley Moss, Miranda Slaven and Manish Sharma at Thurling Green, UWA.

SAgE Honours student Ruby Wiese is using her AW Howard Memorial Trust Honours Scholarship to perform trials of a novel mechanical weed control method at the UWA Shenton Park Field Station.

While growing up on a farm in Narrogin, Ms Wiese was fascinated by the amount of time and effort her dad needed to spend on weed control.

“Weeds are good at adapting to, and evading, control methods, so the best solution for weed control is an integrated weed management system,” she said.

“The goal for this project is to develop a novel mechanical control technology with a different mode of action, to contribute to an integrated management system.

“I have also always wanted to have a career with a focus on sustainability, so the prospect of researching new non-chemical weed control methods to ease the over-reliance on herbicides is really exciting for me."

Having submitted his thesis earlier this year, School of Engineering PhD candidate Wesley Moss said the AW Howard Memorial Trust Research Fellowship he received in 2019 was invaluable to his research journey.

Mr Moss investigated approaches for increasing the efficiency and sustainability of subclover seed harvesting.

The project combined his passion for agricultural engineering and interest in developing machinery for sustainable agricultural systems.

“I was especially excited to have been awarded this Fellowship because of the rich history associated with AW Howard, as he was the first subclover seed producer and pioneered the area where my research takes place.”

Wesley Moss

Miranda Slaven’s initial reaction to her AW Howard Memorial Trust Masters Scholarship was a mixture of excitement and relief.

“Excited that I can now gain experience conducting new analyses that I know will improve the validity of my thesis and be a beneficial skill in my future career, and relief that I now have the funds to do so,” the SAgE researcher said.

Through her research, Ms Slaven hopes to inform methods by which soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation can be optimised within agricultural systems.

“Such findings will be able to inform on-farm decision making to maintain or increase SOC and improve productivity,” she said.

“This will make a difference to the ‘bigger picture’ because, despite significant research into accumulating SOC, little consensus has been reached surrounding best practice and greater insight into the dynamics of SOC and the factors affecting it to be achieved.”

SAgE PhD candidate Manish Sharma said he was thankful for the AW Howard Memorial Trust Tim Healey Memorial Scholarship.

In the first year of his research, Mr Sharma aims to analyse the agricultural potential of struvite (a recycled phosphorus fertiliser derived from human wastewater) as a sustainable phosphorus fertiliser.

His ultimate dream is to ensure that Australian fertiliser manufacturers will no longer need to buy phosphorus raw material from other countries.

“With the increasing demand for phosphorus fertiliser each year, existing rock phosphate reserve could be exhausted in 300 to 400 years,” he said.

“Phosphorus recycling from current waste streams is a viable sustainable solution for future phosphorus demand.”