Professor Geoff Gurr and his team at Charles Sturt University's Orange campus have won a prestigious Engagement Australia Excellence Award.
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Engagement Australia is the peak alliance of Australian and New Zealand universities.
The university won the Outstanding Engagement for Research Impact award on Monday for its work with industry on developing new farming techniques.
Tens of thousands of rice farmers across Asia have already embraced farming methods based on the advice of professor Gurr and his team.
And many, many more around the globe are set to follow.
By utilising techniques borne out of four years of research on farms in Asia, farmers are increasing yield, decreasing wastage and limiting the volume of pesticides and herbicides required to keep crops safe, and the time required to spray them.
"The award was a really nice surprise," professor Gurr said.
Professor Gurr recalled that his interest in farming and pest control was piqued about a decade ago.
"I was in contact with a colleague at the International Rice Research Institute and hosted him here in Orange.
"We got talking about common interests and it became apparent there was a signifcant need for work to be done on ecological pest control."
In Thailand, China and Vietnam, success was achieved by planting certain crops containing nectar around the perimeter of rice paddies to attract "good" insects.
"A good example is sesame," said professor Gurr.
"Not a crop terribly familiar to most Australians, but a high value crop in Asia where the seeds are used for oil, confectionery and baked goods.
"The beneficial insects [attracted to the nectar] kept the pests in check, and the farmers in our trials used 70 percent less pesticide."
He said farmers benefited from "massive savings in time and money, increased rice yields and extra money from the sesame".
Once word began to spread among remote farming communities - including via an infotainment TV program - professor Gurr said the method "took off like wild fire".
The CSU research has also had a positive impact on cotton growers and the forestry industry.
In research funded by the Australian vegetable industry, professor Gurr and the team are working on how to best replicate the Asian success story in Australia, including at vineyards.
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