This National Grower Network (NGN) investment aims to assist grain growers in the southern and central High Rainfall Zone with insights into making faba beans a more reliable and profitable crop option.
These regions face challenges due to the reduction of pasture legumes, resulting in declining soil carbon and nitrogen stocks and increasing input costs. The adoption of pulse crops, particularly faba beans, is proposed to address this issue, increase crop rotation profitability (as demonstrated by CSP2110-004RMX), and reduce reliance on canola (thus lowering the pressure on crop protection chemistry).
However, challenges persist with faba beans including balancing biomass and harvest index, managing disease pressure and lodging, and the perception of yield instability.
This project will see experiments conducted to quantify the risk and reward of canopy management strategies, reduce disease pressure and susceptibility to lodging, and improve pod set and yield. Results will measure the impact on productivity and profitability, and key learnings will be disseminated to growers with the help of advisors, accounting for water and nitrogen fixation legacy impacts.