WELL-RESPECTED agricultural consultant, researcher and Wharminda grower Ed Hunt has been named the recipient of the 2017 GRDC Southern Region Seed of Light Award, which acknowledges outstanding effort in the extension of GRDC-supported grains research outcomes.
Voted by the GRDC Southern Regional Panel, the award was presented to Mr Hunt at the GRDC grains research update in Adelaide on Tuesday.
GRDC Southern Regional Panel chair Keith Pengilley said the award recognised the significant contribution by a non-traditional researcher who was a leader in farm business management and had gone “above and beyond” to communicate the outcomes of his research.
“Ed has gained respect in the consultant and researcher community for his ability to challenge thinking and shape research questions that have impacted on the direction of low rainfall research in the southern region, in areas such as crop nutrition and root diseases and their management,” he said.
Being a farmer in a low rainfall environment himself and having had to live through extended drought, Mr Hunt has had valuable personal experience to draw on in terms of developing resilient and profitable farming systems.
“As a professional consultant, he has been able to go one step further by evaluating a range of farming systems and observing risk management attitudes and behaviours of clients and incorporating their experiences into his analysis and messages,” Mr Pengilley said.
“His farmer-friendly way of communicating these important research outcomes to our primary producers makes him a truly deserving recipient of this year’s Seed of Light Award.”
Mr Hunt, who graduated with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science from New Zealand’s Lincoln University in 1979, runs his own consulting business on the Eyre Peninsula.
