b"worldSTATUS A look at seed industry developments around the globe.Australia launches a newSTATUS AUSTRALIA machine learningwhensmall hive beetle, an invasive line of Australian hardA new high yielding wheatapplied to data from multiplespecies capable of rapidly is set to become a headlinesources, including, critically,destroying a bee colony.wheat, while Columbiaact in 2020, with the Westernfarmerscan help makeThese findings are the looks at new tools to helpAustralian launch of the newlyfarming more efficient andresult of research carried raise yields in difficultclassified Australian Hardproductive even amid climateout by an international team variety, RockStar. uncertainty. This can bestled by Bram Cornelissen years. RockStar is set to be abe achieved when the scien- (Wageningen University & hit with growers, provid- tists, producers and farmersResearch). The scientists ing a robust, flexible varietyorganizations collaborate andresearched the risk of an inva-option to reduce the impact ofwork together, the researcherssion of the small hive beetle seasonal variability on springconclude. under a number of different crops and generate profitableCollected over a period ofclimate scenarios between yields. almost 10 years, Jimenez andnow and 2080. Their work The new release was pro- colleagues analyzed the datawas recently published in duced by Western Australianand verified developed guide- Global Change Biology.cereal breeding company,lines for increased production.The small hive beetle is InterGrain, which is co-ownedSome farmers immediatelyendemic to sub-Saharan by the State Governmentfollowed the guidelines,Africa, but over the past and the Grains Research andwhile others waited until30 years it has managed to Development Corporation. the recommendations werespread across almost the WA's talented grainsverified in field trials. Farmersentire world. This is partly due scientists are recognised asthat adopted the full suite ofto the international market for industry leaders in research,machine-generated guidelineswax, honey and bee colonies. development and innovation,saw their yields increase fromIn 2014, the beetle was identi-supported by the McGowanan average of 3.5 tons perfied in Italy, where it had man-Government's investments inhectare to more than 6 tonsaged to establish a population. state-of-the-art facilities, fieldper hectaremore than 40%.The beetle has a devastating trials and strong relationshipsThis is an excellent yield forimpact on bee colonies. Once with industry, academia andrainfed maize in the region. established, small hive beetles customers. Not only did farmersrapidly reproduce and their obtained higher yields, butlarvae can decimate a bee the guidelines substantiallycolony within two weeks.STATUS COLUMBIA reduced fertilizer costs, andInvasive species regularly Farmers in Colombias north- also provided advice on howturn up in the Netherlands ern maize-growing regionto reduce risks related to vari- and cause significant damage of Crdoba had seen it all:ation in the weather patterns,to our environment and too much rain one year, aincluding reducing the nega- to agriculture, says Bram searing drought another. Intive impacts of heavy rainfall. Cornelissen, who participated collaboration with the gov- in the research into the spread ernment, a national growersof the beetle. Climate change association and researchersSTATUS EU could make this an even at the International Center forNew research has found thatgreater problem than it cur-Tropical Agriculture (CIAT),if climate change continuesrently is. The appearance of they helped build and imple- on its current path, it's likelythe small hive beetle would be ment big-data tools thatthe European Union (EU)a new challenge for beekeep-successfully increased yieldshoneybee will be facing a newers in the Netherlands. This is in spite of the challenges pre- threat sometime in the future.a cause for concern, and if we sented by extreme weatherThis is because an increasedont take action now to pre-and climate change. in temperatures will providevent the introduction of this The study shows howthe perfect conditions for thebeetle, we will eventually find 132/ SEEDWORLD.COMDECEMBER 2019"