Sachesh Silwal1,2, Dr Audrey Delahunty2, Dr Ashley Wallace2, Dr Sally Norton3, Dr Penny Riffkin4, Dr Brendan Christy5, Dr James Nuttall1,2
1The University of Melbourne, Pakville, Australia, 2Agriculture Victoria, Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Horsham, Australia, 3Australian Grains Genebank, Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Horsham, Australia, 4Agriculture Victoria, Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Hamilton, Australia, 5Agriculture Victoria, Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Rutherglen, Australia
Biography:
Mr Sachesh Silwal is a PhD student at the University of Melbourne. Sachesh completed his Masters in Applied Science (Research) from CQUniversity, Australia in 2017 and Bachelor of Science (Agriculture) in 2005. He has more than 10 years of experience in plant breeding, agronomy and plant physiology research with various crops under different agro-ecologies, including dryland, high mountain, temperate and tropical, within commercial and subsistence farming. His current PhD research focus is on mungbean adaptation to south-eastern Australia. He is investigating the agronomic suitability of mungbeans to southern Australia by exploring crop phenology, temperature response, water and nitrogen dynamics.
Abstract:
Mungbean is grown as a summer crop in subtropical climates globally. The increasing demand of mungbean will require the expansion of production regions, which could include more marginal environments such as southern Australia, as an opportunistic summer crop. We tested the response of five mungbean varieties to summer rainfall patterns and soil water availability using supplementary irrigation treatments at Ouyen, Woomelang, Horsham, Hamilton and Rutherglen in 2020-21 and 2021-22 within Victoria. Across sites, mungbean yields, in decreasing order, were 1331 (Hamilton), 1205 (Rutherglen), 703 (Horsham), 514 (Ouyen) and 503 kg/ ha (Woomelang). For time of sowing (TOS) (early November, TOS1 and early December, TOS2), there was no significant difference in grain yield, except for Rutherglen 2021 (TOS1, 715 kg/ha and TOS2, 1576 kg/ha). Water availability at the reproductive growth stage resulted in a 57 % increase in average yield compared to rainfed treatment across all sites. Average water use efficiency (WUE) across sites was 3.8 and 3.0 kg/ha/mm for Jade-AU and Celera II-AU respectively and benchmark WUE was 11 & 24 kg/ha/mm respectively. Stored soil water at sowing had no effect on mungbean WUE. The average time to harvest was 128 days, ranging from 107 (Woomelang 2021, TOS1) to 153 DAS (Rutherglen 2021, TOS1). Taken together mungbean response to reproductive water is important for yield potential, where under dryland cropping conditions north-east Victoria (e.g. Rutherglen) may present the best opportunity for mungbean production.