MALLEE Sustainable Farming has named agricultural research engineer Jack Desbiolles the 2023 winner of the David Roget Award for Excellence.
Dr Desbiolles was nominated by the farming community for his exceptional service to the industry and the nomination was strongly endorsed by the MSF board, recognising his longstanding contribution to supporting the adoption of no-till farming and more recently sustainable soil amelioration practices in the MSF region.
MSF chair Steve Burt said Dr Desbiolles’ work had resulted in a pivotal change in the profitability of Mallee farming, but had had broader impact than the Mallee, with many of his projects receiving national and even global recognition.
Dr Desbiolles has taken his no-till expertise to Eritrea, Morocco, Tunisia, India, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria and Cambodia.
Mr Burt said Dr Desbiolles’ efforts had improved the livelihoods of farmers working in some of the most hostile and challenging environments.
He said Dr Desbiolles was a firm believer in farmers, advisers and researchers, machinery manufacturers, and input suppliers working together to achieve a common objective – the adoption of conservation farming systems.
“Jack and his team at the University of SA’s Agricultural Machinery Research and Design Centre have pioneered many innovations that have been fundamental to farmers in the Mallee and further afield achieving significant yield improvements whilst improving the sustainability of their farming systems,” Mr Burt said.
Dr Desbiolles said: “It is an honour and privilege to receive this award, which reflects the combined efforts and synergy of working over the years with a dedicated agricultural engineering research team at the AMRDC, alongside an inspiring group of collaborating farming system research scientists, agronomists and advisors, as well as the broader MSF team, and not least guided by leading Mallee farmers being active contributors in participatory RD&E projects and sharing their wealth of knowledge.”
Mr Burt said some of Dr Desbiolles’ work with his team includes a deep-slotting point with back-swept shallow wings, bent leg openers, the high work rate plough, improving the design of inclusion ripping and ripping with wings, and more recently in MSF’s Future Drought Fund Robust ground cover project validating the use of strip amelioration to reduce erosion risk and seed priming for improved dry seeding outcomes.
He said Dr Desbiolles’ drive to solve real farmer engineering issues and communicate that in a farmer-friendly way had been vital to the uptake of innovations such as no-till farming.
“Jack always made himself available to talk with farmers and is one of those researchers who understands the importance of getting out and talking to people.
“Jack’s dedication to communicate his results extends beyond meeting with farmers and advisers at events. He has authored countless papers and guides, including a large number of MSF FarmTalk fact sheets and compendium articles with a more recent transition to digital communications.
“This has all contributed to a vital legacy of innovations that will continue to propel agriculture into an efficient and sustainable future.”
The David Roget Award for Excellence is judged on:
● The contribution made to improving environmental, economic, and social sustainability of dryland farming production systems in the MSF region, and
● The recipient demonstrating impact broader than the initial target of the activity or initiative.
“When it comes to meeting these two objectives, Jack has excelled at both with passion and dedication and is a most deserving winner of the David Roget Award for Excellence for 2023,” Mr Burt said.
