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Mungbean crop in 'the lap of the gods', despite rain event

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Craig Chapman, Greg Giblett, Gordon Cummings, and Sam Simons at the mungbeans best practice workshop.||
The district’s mungbean crop is expected to be significantly smaller this year due to the drought. 
Agronomists are reporting the recent rain event won’t be enough for many farmers to plant a crop.
Pulse Australia is estimating the national tonnage could fall 20 to 60 000 tonnes short of the annual average of 80 000 tonnes, depending on the amount of rain received before the New Year. 
Mungbeans are particularly important to rotational cropping systems in the district, as they are planted following more nutrient intensive crops to replenish nitrogen levels in the soil and improve microbiology. 
It’s one of the major broadleaf summer crops grown in the district, and the only significant legume summer crop. 
The drought induced short supply of mungbeans has pushed the price $200 per tonne higher than the long term average. 
Development Manager of Pulse Australia, Gordon Cummings, expects farmers will be looking to grow mungbeans this year if they have enough moisture. 
“Whilst they are a specialty crop and grown in a smaller volume, they’re a very key part of our farming system and our rotational practices, and when things are going well they’re extremely profitable, at the moment they’re worth just over a thousand dollars a tonne,” he said. 
“This gives farmers a gross margin of $600 a hectare net, whereas sorghum might be getting them 4 or 500 dollars a hectare net, so they’re very profitable at the moment.
“If it rains, there’ll be a lot of interest in mungbeans, even cotton growers who’ve got limited water are looking at mungbeans as a better use of their water.
“It’s all in the lap of the gods, if it doesn’t rain, we could see a crop of 10-15 00 tonnes, if we get a good amount of rain between now and new year, we could be looking at 60 000 tonnes.”
In preparation for summer planting, Pulse Australia recently ran a Mung Bean Best Practice course at the Australian Cotton Research Centre (ACRI), in conjunction with the Australian Mungbean Association, QLD Department of Agriculture, NSW Department of Primary Industries and the Grains Research and Development Corporation. 
The courses are designed to keep agronomists up to date with the latest research and information, so they can act as a key multiplier and pass the information on to their network of farming clients.
“It’s quite valuable for them to be getting their questions answered, but it’s equally important for the researchers to be hearing what the questions are and take them back to their research programs,” Gordon explained. 
Agronomists from Moree, Narrabri, Wee Waa, and the Liverpool Plains were in attendance. 
NSW DPI Agronomist, Craig Chapman, is based at the ACRI and has been working with mungbeans for almost 10 years as the Technical Officer with the Summer Pulse Agronomy Project.
He explained why best practice training courses are important. 
“We are in touch with the growers constantly and we need to be able to answer the questions that they come across everyday,” he said. 
“Mung beans are an important option for farmers to use within their rotation.” 

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