GCTV Ep#9 Mungbeans
Narrator: For decades, Xavier and Heather Martin have
used Mungbeans as a summer rainfall opportunity crop on their New South Wales property, but
over the last five years the broadleaf legume has gained more importance in their farming
system.
Heather Martin: Grain Grower ‘Bourbah’ Mullaley NSW
What's really good about Mungbeans is the short growing season so it's in and out and
in the silo before you've had time to blink.
We also found it very beneficial for breaking the disease cycle with wheat.
Narrator: With low nutrition requirements and providing
good summer grass weed control, this break crop fixes Nitrogen in the soil, saving a
financial input for the next crop.
And Mungbeans don't deplete the entire moisture profile.
Xavier Martin: Grain Grower ‘Bourbah’ Mullaley NSW
They tend to only use the top half a metre, maybe 600, 700 mils maximum, so you've still
got some moisture left that then doesn't take as much topping-up to get back into a winter
rotation or the following summer rotation.
Narrator: Another advantage is not being directly linked
to a specific market, aiding growers in risk management.
Xavier Martin: They're really a vegetable, and so you're
not beholding to the commodity markets, and I think the point being that it decouples
from the soybean price effectively even though there is notionally some relationship in terms
of how and where it might be grown.
Narrator: Under the National Mungbean Improvement Program
lead by Queensland’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry with GRDC support,
the industry has doubled in size.
Genetic gains have seen the variety Crystal deliver a 20% yield increase on older lines
as well as provide improved disease resistance.
And in the breeding pipeline is another variety that's expected to lift yields a further 10%.
Gordon Cumming: Industry Development Manager (Northern Region) Pulse Australia
We're dealing with an industry now of around seventy or eighty thousand tonnes per annum
so it's quite a solid and substantial industry.
Narrator: While seventy thousand tonnes isn't huge in
terms of global production, it does represent around 60% of what's traded internationally,
making us a significant player on the global stage.
And international trade is where the profits are, with countries like India being massive
Mungbean consumers.
Heather Martin: In India Mungbeans are a staple food.
They have a long shelf life over there and I think they're available to everybody.
Narrator: Little wonder then that Xavier and Heather
used prize money from receiving last year's Australian Mungbean Association Production
Award for Excellence, to head overseas to see how crops are grown by the nation producing
the world's largest volume of Mungbeans.
Xavier Martin: To go to India where there's a million and
a half tonnes of Mungbeans in consumption, black gram and green gram, and see how they
do it, what they're doing, what their challenges are, and how they're addressing those, was
really excellent.
Narrator: As well as ideas on continual cropping, Xavier
gained valuable insight into traditional Mungbean nutrient requirements.
Xavier Martin: I think it's really important to understand
the soil fertility that you're looking to plant your Mungbeans in, to understand not
just the micronutrients, but the major nutrients.
And making sure they're within a reasonable zone and if not addressing that with some
sort of starter fertiliser, is going to be important to have a healthy plant.
Narrator: The industry has seen healthy prices too.
Returns for mid range processing Mungbeans have been between 750 and 850 dollars per
tonne.
Jane Drinkwater: Reporter With good returns available, there's plenty
of incentive to grow Mungbeans, but what should growers take into consideration when looking
to plant this short-season pulse.
Xavier Martin: It's really important to manage the things
we can manage, to do the preparedness, to leave the only thing perhaps to chance should
be rainfall.
If everything else is covered off the chances of having a great success at the other end
are greatly enhanced.
Narrator: Being able to get the crop harvested and onto
aerated storage in a timely manner is also key.
Xavier Martin: It will keep quite well for quite a few months
and so there's time to understand what qualities, obviously what quantity you've harvested and
to market that effectively.
And the opportunities can change dramatically.
I've seen pricing double in less than 30 days.
Narrator: Successful marketing necessitates a shift
in thinking.
Gordon Cumming: It's not as simple as just delivering them
to the local receival point you need a good relationship with a marketer.
They are sold internationally as a vegetable we keep saying that word as a vegetable crop.
So it's a different mindset for the Australian grower who's used to growing a cereal wheat
or sorghum.
Narrator: Because this pulse crop is sold as a vegetable,
post-harvest processes like grading, packing and certifying are also important.
Gordon Cumming: They're exported and consumed virtually straight
out of the bag that they're packed into here in Australia, so the presentation and the
quality is paramount, and again attention to detail by the grower to achieving that
is terribly important.
But it does position us at the upper end of the marketplace and that's where the profit
is for the Australian producers.
Narrator: That profit can make a big difference to your
bottom line.
Xavier Martin: The opportunity's there to get another $800
or $1000 per hectare in that financial year because they're such a fast crop.
So you can turn a two percent rate of return or a five percent rate of return into a fifteen
or eighteen percent rate of return.
Gordon Cumming: If you actually sit down and work out the
dollar return per day of crop, Mungbeans would be one of your most profitable broadacre crops
that you could actually grow, again much more akin to a horticultural crop.
Narrator: And the future's looking bright, with demand
on the rise.
Gordon Cumming: We're seeing this emerging gap in production
and consumption in the traditional marketplaces, being places like India, Burma, that part
of the world.
So they are short and that gap is growing continuously.
Narrator: The National Mungbean Improvement Program
is set to continue to capitalise on that opportunity.
Gordon Cumming: So plant breeding is the main focus of that
program.
We're also now starting to look at the agronomic processes, nutrition, time of planting, plant
population, all those sorts of things to really maximise the genetic potential in these new
varieties that are coming out of that program.
Narrator: As Xavier saw first-hand in India, Australia
is well positioned to gain from growing international demand.
Xavier Martin: It was really hard to find any quality in
the markets that was anything approaching Australia's quality.
It gives me great confidence that if we do it well in this nation, we'll easily be able
to meet and exceed the expectations of those hungry people around the world.
ENDS