Summary

The Australian New Crops Website (http://www.newcrops.uq.edu.au/) currently provides reference lists for more than 82,800 plant species, along with any available contact information for the relevant author(s). These lists cover publications produced in the period 1926-2006; the current project plans to update this information to include publications produced from 2007 until the end of the project (2014) and to investigate and develop processes to assist with future annual updating. Searching in this manner also permits the identification of plant species which are currently creating interest amongst the research community worldwide and can provide an alerting system for new crops with potential. It is planned that alerts for new crops creating such interest will be included in the Australian New Crops Blog (http://newcrops.blogspot.com/).

Program

New and Emerging Plant Industries

Research Organisation

Dr Rob Fletcher

Objective Summary

The focus of business for RIRDC is to invest in new and emerging rural industries with a view to improving the viability of the rural sector through diversification. The mission of the Australian New Crops Website (since 1996) has been to support this endeavour through providing information that will assist with the development of new industries based on plants or plant products. This information assists with finding what is already known about a plant species, identifying the people who have previously worked with the species (and in some cases are still doing so) and providing advice on the process of new crop industry commercialisation for Australia.