Agriculture Victoria's Jason Brand has won the 2019 Grains Research and Development Corporation's southern region Seed of Light Award.

The award acknowledges outstanding effort in the extension of outcomes from the corporation's grains research investments.

Dr Brand has been responsible for developing management packages for new pulse varieties, and has provided advice to Pulse Breeding Australia on traits suited to modern farming systems.

He said the award, presented at the corporation's grains research update in Bendigo last week, came as a shock.

"It is a fantastic honour and certainly a humbling experience - many wonderful people have won the award before me," he said.

"I got into agriculture when I was pretty young. I had a primary school teacher who was really passionate about looking after natural resources, and that got me interested in plants.

"I got into Urrbrae Agricultural High School in Adelaide before studying at the University of Adelaide, and the rest is history.

"I've had some fantastic teachers and mentors along the way.

"Dr Tony Rathjen was a world-famous wheat breeder and was a supervisor during my PhD. He shaped a lot of my career and my passion in bringing science to growers."

Dr Brand started work in Horsham as a pulse research agronomist with Agriculture Victoria in 2000.

He leads a program that provides solutions for growers about how to best grow and manage their pulse crops to maximise profitability.

He said there had been many highlights during his career.

"Mine was probably one of the first research programs to switch to a no-till farming system, and we saw some significant benefits with that," he said.

"We saw lentils yield 20 to 30 per cent more than what they did in the old conventional systems where the soil was worked and cultivated.

"That was probably one of the big things that shaped my career early on and what I do now."

For all his achievements, Dr Brand said the most rewarding aspect of his work was the relationships he had formed within the industry, including with agronomists and growers across Victoria and South Australia.

"To be involved with these people and contribute something to them that is really valuable to their farming systems, and to be able to contribute to and support agriculture as a whole, is really rewarding," he said.

"Ag is a wonderful place to work - there are a lot of great people out there. It's an innovative and relatively fast-moving industry."

Dr Brand said the Grains Research and Development Corporation recently expanded the program he leads.

"We'd like to see that vision continue going forward across the whole of southern Australia," he said.

"In terms of the bigger picture, I'd love to see opportunities in Victoria and South Australia continue to expand across the nation.

"I was in Perth on Monday, and being able to talk to growers and industry people over there about some of the opportunities that are there with crops like chickpeas was really exciting.

"It would be great to see the pulse industry in Australia continue to grow. From a human food perspective, there will be a huge demand for these pulses in the future."

Grains Research and Development Corporation southern region panel member Kate Wilson said Dr Brand was without peer in the southern region.

“What this man does not know about pulse breeding and agronomy is not worth knowing," she said.

"I speak about Jason’s worth not only on behalf of the grains industry in the south and beyond, but also from personal experience. Over many years I have been privileged to operate as a grower and an adviser in an industry that has benefited enormously from Jason’s dedication, enthusiasm and expertise.

“And while in essence he is a researcher – and a very good one at that – it is his particular efforts in communication and extension that this award acknowledges.”

Mrs Wilson said as the long-standing leader of the corporation's Southern Pulse Agronomy Program, Dr Brand’s influence was immense.

“I would even suggest that Jason’s work has in some way or another found its way into just about every pulse crop sown, grown and harvested in the southern region over recent decades,” she said.

“A passion of Jason’s, from which we all benefit, is working very creatively to attract young people into grains research as graduates, PhD students and technical staff. 

“I know Jason puts an enormous effort into mentoring new students in the importance of understanding farming systems and the importance of working with growers and agronomists to ensure their research is relevant and can be easily accessed.”

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