NEWS
New ‘South African’ pasture
crop for Aussie farmers
Reprinted From: http://bit.ly/2PptY0P
Stellenbosch University
F
armers in the sandy areas of Western
Australia will soon be able to plant
a brand new perennial pasture crop
that originated from South Africa.
Some ten years ago, researchers from the
Murdoch University in Western Australia
went on a mission to find a new legumi-
nous pasture crop for their farmers. The
research group, led by Prof John Howie-
son, went through most of the Mediter-
ranean regions and their search was fi-
nally completed in South Africa. Lebeckia
ambigua, an upright growing green plant
with beautiful bright yellow flowers, was
the plant that caught their attention.
During their search for a pasture crop,
seed from the Lebeckia plant was collect-
ed in the sandy regions of the Northern
and Western Cape of South Africa. The
surrounding areas, where the plant was
found, compared well to typical condi-
tions in Western Australia. According to
the Australian research group, this plant
grew in low rainfall areas (200 – 450 mm)
in deep, infertile sandy soils.
Howieson and his team took some seeds
back to Murdoch University and years
of research led to the introduction of a
brand new leguminous pasture crop for
the low rainfall, sandy regions of Aus-
tralia. During the recent launch of the
pasture crop in Australia, Howieson men-
tioned that this specific crop would turn
3 million hectares of marginal soils into
areas with productive summer pastures.
The crop will survive summer months and
farmers will be able to increase the carry-
ing capacity of their pastures. Economic
analyses also showed that Australian
famers could possibly make 400 Austral-
ian dollars more per hectare compared
to other available pastures in the same
climatic conditions.
During the years the research group
spent commercializing Lebeckia, two
new rhizobium species (Burkholderia dil-
wothii and Burkholderia sprentiae), were
associated with the plant. Inoculation
with the rhizobium species will allow the
Lebeckia plant to fixate nitrogen in low
pH, sandy soils.
on Isanti as it means “sand” in Xhosa. It
originally grows in the Sandveld region
of the Western Cape and therefore the
name can directly relate to the original
derivation.
The Isanti-cultivar will probably also be
available to South African farmers in the
near future. Meanwhile, researchers of
the Western Cape Department of Agri-
culture have received 100 grams of Isanti
seed from Howieson.
They are aiming to establish a few plants
in Hopefield and Lambertsbaai to see if
the crop will provide adequate pastures
in sandy soils during late summer months
and autumn.
No nitrogen fertilisation would thus be
necessary on the pastures, however, ad-
ditional superphosphates and potassium
are recommended in a 3:1 ratio. If the trial succeeds, Murdoch University
will be requested to make the seed and
rhizobium species available to South Af-
rican farmers.
The first seed will be commercially avail-
able to Australian farmers next year. This
seed will be sold as the first cultivar of
Lebeckia, Isanti. The cultivar name was
given by a Stellenbosch University stu-
dent, Karen Truter. Karen Truter is a second year MSc stu-
dent in the Department of Agronomy.
She works under supervision of Dr Pieter
Swanepoel of the Department and Dr
Johann Strauss from the Western Cape
Department of Agriculture. Her research
focusses on conservation agriculture sys-
tems and the type of seed-drill to use for
crop establishment.
During a recent visit to Murdoch Uni-
versity in Australia, Howieson asked
for suggestions for a cultivar name for
Lebeckia. It was decided to use a word
from an African language that is easy to
pronounce in English. Karen decided
Editor's Note
Karen has now completed her MSc and is
graduating in March 2020.
Figure 1: The seed for a new pasture crop will soon be available.
Grassroots
Vol 20
No 1
March 2020
38