The Government has developed a plan for using Tasmania's public research farms to support research, development and extension (RD&E) to 2050:
the Government's framework for how Tasmania's public research farms will be used to help deliver modern agricultural RD&E for Tasmanian farmers and agribusiness
the criteria for the Government investing into research farm assets, infrastructure, facilities and equipment upgrades.
The framework and criteria are being applied to investment proposals for:
Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA) Dairy Research Facility at Elliott
TIA Vegetable Research Facility at Forthside
Cressy Research and Development Station
Grove Farm
Elliott and Forthside
A $7.7 million joint investment with the University of Tasmania will see the Elliott and Forthside Research Farms upgraded to centres of excellence to provide dairy and vegetable RD&E and education for the next decade. The Tasmanian Government has provided a $5million stimulus to the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture as part of the UTAS vision to develop an integrated “future farming hub" for agricultural research, development, extension and education in the North of the State.
Cressy
The Government is investing up to $750,000 to upgrade core infrastructure such as electricity and pipelines for irrigation, drainage works and training facilities at the Cressy research and Development Station. This will support potential co-investment from agribusiness tenants and importantly, will support ongoing industry led RD&E investment at the Cressy property into the future.
Grove Farm
Grove Farm has a collection of over 600 pome fruit varieties (apple, pear, quince, crab apple and rootstock varieties). See the below document for the list of varieties.
Heritage Orchard Variety List (PDF 226Kb)
The State Government is working with the fruit industry to examine the feasibility of options for the Grove Station (farm) to support industry-led horticultural RD&E. The feasibility of establishing an additional insurance population from the stock at the Grove heritage apple and pear nursery is also being examined.
The Plan for should be read in conjunction with the White Paper Growing Tasmanian Agriculture Research, Development and Extension for 2050 released in 2017 which directs Government efforts - policy, actions and investment - to support agricultural RD&E.