Plant breeders at the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) have developed a new disease-resistant variety of mungbean with high yield potential.
Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries, Mark Furner said Opal-AU was the latest offering from the globally-recognised mungbean breeding program and would be available for growers to buy later this year.
“The Government continues to support farmers by developing and commercialising superior mungbean varieties with high grain yield, resistance to bacterial disease and the highest grain quality demanded by export markets,” Mr Furner said.
“Opal-AU is the sixth variety released since DAF’s National Mungbean Improvement Program began in the early 2000s.”
He said that since 2003, the Department’s research and development had underpinned a quadrupling of Australian mungbean production, and its mungbean varieties had 99 per cent market share.
“The Government is currently investing $3.3 million in a five-year mungbean breeding program and is also supporting growers with $1 million to research on-farm storage of tropical pulses,” the Minister said.
Principal Research Scientist for Pulse Crops at DAF, Col Douglas said the new variety represented the most significant breakthrough in protection against halo blight in large-seeded mungbeans.
“Opal-AU has the best protection from this bacterial disease and will significantly lift the productivity and reliability of mungbean in southern production areas where the disease is more prevalent,” Mr Douglas said.
