INDUSTRY NEWS
Scientist shares irrigation insights
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Dr Ariel Ferrante joined SARDI’ s Loxton Research Centre in July as Senior Research Scientist for Irrigated Crops, bringing more than two decades of ecophysiological and agronomic research experience, peer-reviewed publications and international field-trial leadership to the Riverland’ s almond and apricot production systems. He told Kellie Hollingworth about his career and the almond projects he’ ll be working on.
Q. What prompted you to apply for the Senior Research Scientist role in Loxton? A. My research has centred on the ecophysiological mechanisms that govern crop performance under abiotic stress: water and carbon relations, resource-use efficiency, and the developmental processes that translate resource capture into yield. Although most of my applied field research has been in annual cereals, the underlying mechanisms are broadly shared across plant systems; they shape canopy function, wateruse efficiency and stress response in perennial crops in much the same way as in cereals, even though the timing and allocation of these processes differ between annual and perennial life cycles. I also already know this region well: earlier in my career I ran winter cereal frost trials based at the Loxton Research Centre and Bulla Burra Farm, so returning to apply that ecophysiological framework to irrigated almond and apricot production, in the same landscape but a different production system, felt like a natural progression. The Loxton role offered a direct opportunity to apply that mechanistic understanding to irrigation scheduling, canopy architecture and climate resilience in horticulture. SARDI’ s model of embedding independent, high-quality science within grower-facing extension was also a strong pull, it’ s the same applied-research philosophy that underpinned my research on the GRDC National Frost Initiative.
Q. What will you be working on in this role? A. I’ ll be contributing to two Hort Innovation – funded projects, alongside an ongoing SARDI project:
In A Nutshell- Spring 2026 Vol 27 Issue 3
• Efficient Almond Orchard Systems( AL25001), through field trials at the Almond Centre of Excellence and a commercial orchard site, the research will explore different planting densities, varietal mixes and management strategies under Australian conditions, with the aim of generating evidencebased guidance on orchard design, resource-use efficiency and long-term productivity.
• Optimising Almond Production Systems( AL21001), is an ongoing project building confidence in the almond industry by improving production efficiency through the transition to higherdensity orchard systems. Long-term monitoring at the Almond Centre of Excellence’ s experimental orchards is evaluating rootstock and scion cultivars, planting densities and water-use efficiency, aiming to lift marketable yield and support growers adopting new genotypes, densities and soil amendments.
Q. Before starting in this role, what were you doing? A. Prior to this role, I held a Visiting Research Scientist appointment jointly with Prof. Victor Sadras at SARDI and Prof. Jason Able at the University of Adelaide, where we advanced damage functions relating yield and frost, which are useful for modelling, and maps of grain set in spikes that help understanding the physiology of yield in response to frost. Prior to that, as Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide, I co-led major GRDC National Frost Initiative research, screening frost tolerance across multisite cereal trials, including research based at the Loxton Research Station and Bulla Burra Farm, in collaboration with the University of Wollongong and SAGI biometricians for multienvironment trial( MET) design and analysis. This included deployment of remote sensing and phenotyping, and, on the diagnostics side, contribution to terahertz-imaging methods for detecting frost damage in barley.
Q. Where did you complete your studies? A. I completed a Bachelor of Science in Agronomy at the University of Buenos Aires, then moved to the University of Lleida, Spain, for a Master of Science in Agri-Food Systems by Research and a PhD in crop ecophysiology, awarded with distinction. My doctoral research, supervised by Prof. Roxana Savin and Prof. Gustavo Slafer within the Crop Physiology Lab, involved an indepth understanding of the effects of photoperiod signals, N and water availabilities on dynamics of floret development and survival, which determine the fate of these primordia and the generation of grain number in wheat and barley. The research also included a stay at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre( CIMMYT) in Mexico under Prof. Matthew Reynolds, where I trained PhD candidates in floret development methodology. After Spain, I moved into a postdoctoral fellowship at Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, University of Queensland, studying genotype-by-management-byenvironment( G × M × E) interactions in maize, sorghum and wheat, before relocating to South Australia in 2016.
Q. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time? A. Outside of work, I enjoy family time, along with friends, music, reading and sports.
Dr Ferrante can be contacted on 0477 882 269 or by emailing ariel. ferrante @ sa. gov. au