The Editor

Casey Dun. Australian insect farming startup, Solution Blue is seeking investors to scale its black soldier fly protein production system. Providing greater productivity at much lower cost than its competitors, Solution Blue’s world-first technology delivers high-quality, consistent insect protein that has so far eluded insect farmers across the world. And it’s got aquaculture and pet food manufacturers clamouring.

Once limited to science-fiction, drones and facial recognition technology have since become part of modern life and now the technology is being harnessed to help save Australia’s koalas. In new research being undertaken by Flinders University in partnership with conservation charity Koala Life and the SA Government, non-invasive koala monitoring techniques are being developed using drones and facial recognition technology to count, identify and re-identify koalas.

Thousands of jobs are up for grabs as the South Australian agricultural industry braces for a bumper harvest. The jobs, based in regional South Australia, are typically filled by interstate or overseas workers, but due to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions, companies, like bulk grain handler Viterra, are calling on locals to fill these roles.

J Grey. It was always going to be a tough challenge to take the title from the Gold Coast-Tweed District, after 2019’s winners mother-son pair of Jackie McWhinney and Dale McWhinney-Shillington replaced fellow district winners Dee Anne Robertson and Sean Ingham at the top of the leader board. Robertson and Ingham held the top spot for 2017 and 2018. Dee Anne Robertson was back this year, this time pairing with Chris Le Lievre. The question on everyone’s lips was, “would Gold Coast-Tweed take it for the fourth year running?”

NFF Chief Executive, Tony Mahar has welcomed remarks by Minister David Littleproud at the  United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) in a session devoted to leader's statements.

Widespread global disruption to supply is set to see Australian farmers again move to lock in fertiliser and other inputs early for the season ahead, Rabobank says in a recently-released report. This is despite global fertiliser prices at near-decade highs and expected to remain elevated in the short to medium term.

The World Fisheries Congress might be over, but all of the presentations will be available online for another six months, so it’s not too late  to register. In the meantime, if you missed it, here are some spoilers for you.

Continuing COVID border restrictions are making life difficult for farmers and harvest workers at the start of a bumper season. For the second year in a row, farmers are scratching their heads on how to harvest fields full of crops with limited access to workers and COVID testing facilities that have limited hours of operation. NSW Farmers Grains Committee Chair Justin Everitt said there needed to be a coordinated effort from governments to make sure the season wasn’t wasted.  

The hitting wall at  Memorial Park Tennis Complex  in Bordertown is undergoing a makeover as part of a nationwide Hitting Wall Project. The Hitting Wall Project, launched in collaboration with Tennis Australia, will see hitting walls revamped across the country as part of an initiative designed to increase community participation in tennis off the back of soaring participation in 2020/21.