A RESTRUCTURE of the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) will see the northern panel assume responsibility for all of NSW from next Tuesday.
Northern GRDC panel chairman James Clark said the move coincided with the introduction of new panel members across the country, and an intention to open new northern offices in Dubbo and Toowoomba, Queensland, to complement existing offices.
He argued the decision for the northern region to cover all of NSW and Queensland made sense because advances in technology meant traditional borders for cropping regions had shifted, and there would be administrative savings.
"The board made the decision three or four months ago and we've had time enough to communicate the changes to our co-investors," he said.
Mr Clark said he had spent time with southern panel chairman Keith Pengilley to work through the issues to determine the services needed across both regions.
The southern region will continue to use the research facilities at Charles Sturt University and the Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation at Wagga Wagga.
"Wagga will be serviced by two panels instead of one and be funded by both panels, although we are still working out the numbers," Mr Clark said.
"We're not looking for cost savings, we're looking for administrative savings.
"It will be easier for us dealing with the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) and NSW Farmers to have one model instead of two conversations and two strategic plans."
Mr Clark argued the regions shouldn't be split up on a "per kilometre basis".
"In the past there wasn't a hard and fast line across the state," he said.
"There is an opportunity now to focus on delivery, lower the cost of production or increase production frontier.
"The crops growing north and south are now the same, and there are opportunities for crops to grow east and west, and north and south."
Mr Clark said the fact the GRDC launched the canola grow note at Commonwealth Bank AgQuip at Gunnedah last week highlighted the changing boundaries for cropping.
"We will see more of that across the areas as summer crops from north move south to the NSW border and (traditionally) southern crops move north," he said.
He cited an agronomy project working on canola in Wagga, which might extend to cover a bigger area taking in the north of the state.
"Also for growers in southern NSW, they get exposure to researchers in Tamworth, as well as the research in Wagga," he said.
Mr Clark said the three northern NSW nodes - at Narrabri, Tamworth/ Breeza and Trangie - would remain.
"It's logical going forward that we have Condobolin, Wagga and Yanco as critical nodes, and it will allow them to work with the DPI across all six areas on research," he said.
"The real benefit is for growers in the Central West, which is clearly the heart of the state.
"It's a real improvement than it was being serviced by two regions.
"We are clearly focusing on delivering to them."
Mr Clark said the Dubbo office would open by the end of the year or early next year, and recruitment was under way.
"And we've still got the Canberra and CSIRO site, which traditionally focused on the southern cropping area but will now also focus on the northern system," he said.
"We've got a couple of research agronomists and other staff in each one of the nodes, so we can leverage key researchers and have input on research all the way up north.
"We have the ability to hold trials across all the northern region and researchers can look at big data sets, good data, and have answers to growers' questions faster."
Mr Clark said the new panels, replacing half of the existing panel members, were introduced with the boundary changes in mind and the northern panel would include people from southern NSW, although the number of panel members would stay the same.
"We are putting more staff into the regions so the GRDC will have more touch points," he said.
Mr Clark said he didn't think the size of the new panel would be an issue.
"We've made this change to become a more efficient organisation," he said.
