ABOUT US
ABOUT US
Professor Daniel Rodriguez has a background in crop-ecophysiology and systems modelling. He is the leader of QAAFI's Farming Systems Research Group (FSR) at The University of Queensland, Queensland. He is also Associate Editor with Field Crops Research, and Member of the Editorial Board of Agricultural Systems (Elsevier). The FSR team includes Peter deVoil (systems modelling & APSIM programming), Joseph Eyre (maize physiology), Monia Anzooman (post doc), Erin Wilkus (post doc), and several PhD and MSc students.
FSR focus: The economic, risk, environmental and social impacts of alternative practices, cropping systems or farm / household strategies are difficult to anticipate. This can make farmers’ decision-making highly speculative and even subject to biased perceptions. In our work we use participatory learning approaches, empirical agronomic research, systems modelling i.e. plant-field-household, and socio-economic data to generate new science that supports decision-making and produces desirable economic, environmental, and social outcomes for our clients.
To support this work we run large multi environment agronomic research trials on winter and summer cereals and legumes, and use systems tools e.g. APSIM (Holzworth et al., 2014), and APSFarm (Rodriguez et al., 2011; 2012) to help us quantify benefits and trade offs of alternative combinations of managements, genetics across highly variable rainfed and irrigated environments.
We are based at the Gatton Campus of The University of Queensland.
A/Professor Bhagirath Chauhan has a background in ecology and management of weeds in different cropping systems. He leads an applied Weed Science and Management Program within the Centre for Plant Science focused on field crop weed issues in the northern region of Australia. He is Editor-in-Chief of Crop Protection (Elsevier), and Associate Editors of Weed Science (Weed Science Society of America) and Plant Production Science (Crop Science Society of America). He is also Editor-in-Chief of Asian-Pacific Weed Science Society Newsletter. The weed team includes Sudheesh Manalil and Gulshan Mahajan.
Research interests:
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Weed ecology and seed germination biology
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Herbicide use (new uses of existing herbicides; nano-herbicides; rotation and tank mixtures; double knocks; weed detection sprays)
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Identification, occurrence, characterization, and management of herbicide-resistant weeds
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Develop sustainable tillage systems and crop establishment methods
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Improve weed competitive ability of crops by optimizing the use of competitive cultivars, seeding rate, and row spacing
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Develop sustainable integrated weed management programs for different cropping systems (integrate herbicide use with other non-chemical control measures)