AVCSSA
Conference Program
30 July 2026
Program
30 July 2026 • Full-day conference
8:00 – 8:45
Registration
The Warrar Room
8:45 – 8:55
Opening Remarks
Stair Stadium
8:55 – 9:20
Keynote
Prof Ian Godwin: The Future of Crop Improvement: More Tools but More Challenges — UQ (Stair Stadium)
9:20 – 9:45
Keynote
A/Prof Bao Quoc Nguyen: Bringing Molecular Diagnostics and Agri-Biotech Innovation: Collaborative Pathways for Crop Improvement and Biosecurity between Vietnam and the Indo-Pacific Region — NLU (Stair Stadium)
9:45 – 10:10
Keynote
Professor Nick Paul: Product innovation and the sustainable development of seaweed aquaculture across the Indo-Pacific — UNISC (Stair Stadium)
10:10 – 10:50
Panel Discussion
UQ Global Partnership, Aus4Innovation, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Vietnamese Embassy, NLU
10:50 – 11:30
Morning Tea Break
The Warrar Room
11:30 – 13:15
Breakout
Theme 1: Smart & Precision Agriculture (Stair Stadium)
Theme 2: Agricultural Productivity & Policy (Dimbin-Mil Seminar Room)
Poster Sessions (Launch Event Space)
View session details
| Time | Stair Stadium | Dimbin-Mil Seminar Room |
|---|---|---|
| 11:30 – 11:45 | A new high-throughput functional root phenotyping tool for field crops | Smallholder Beef Production in Vietnam: Situational Analysis and Optimal Resource Allocation |
| 11:45 – 12:00 | Application of Irrigrow Scheduling Software for Supplementary Irrigation in Cassava Production | Farm management and yield gaps in Robusta (Coffea canephora) coffee production across the three largest Asian origins |
| 12:00 – 12:15 | Improving Crop Monitoring and Access to Information by Smallholder Farmers and Government Decision-Makers in Vietnam | Bee Pollen as a resource for sustainable apiculture and food innovation |
| 12:15 – 12:30 | Plant Available Water Content Estimation with a Water Balance Model and Satellite Data | Do Sustainability-Linked Loans Change Firm Behaviour? |
| 12:30 – 12:45 | Structure-aware RAG for recurring agronomic reports: addressing document complexity in grounded decision support | From Farm to Border: AI-Powered Certification and Traceability for Smallholder Farmers? |
| 12:45 – 13:00 | Structure-aware RAG for recurring agronomic reports: addressing document complexity in grounded decision support | — |
13:00 – 14:00
Lunch
Launch Event Space
14:00 – 15:15
Breakout
Theme 3: Advanced Breeding, Genomics & Multi-omics (Launch Event Space)
Theme 4: Sustainable & Resilient Agricultural Systems (Stair Stadium)
View session details
| Time | Launch Event Space | Stair Stadium |
|---|---|---|
| 14:00 – 14:15 | A scalable, cost-effective and all-in-one genome solution for beef cattle | Engineering crops to replace fossil carbon: From genes to bioproducts |
| 14:15 – 14:30 | First High-Density Linkage Map and Quantitative Trait Loci for Disease Resistance in Striped Catfish Pangasianodon hypophthalmus | Forging Resilience for Vietnam’s Shrimp Sector |
| 14:30 – 14:45 | Genetic tools and resources for advancing aquaculture breeding: applications and opportunities | Sustainable Cultivation of Cordyceps militaris: A Comparative Study on Vegan Organic vs. Silkworm Substrates |
| 14:45 – 15:00 | Decoding Australian Bipolaris sorokiniana populations for sustainable cereal disease control. | Crop specific responses to deficit irrigation highlight contrasting drought resilience among Australia’s broadacre summer crops |
| 15:00 – 15:15 | Scalable and Trustworthy AI Frameworks for Advanced Breeding, Genomics, Multi-Omics, and Systems Biology | Biodiversity-Focused Nature-Based Solutions for Climate-Resilient Agri-Food Systems: Does Measuring Biodiversity Lead to Stronger Win-Win Outcomes? |
15:15 – 15:45
Afternoon Break
The Warrar Room
15:45 – 17:00
Breakout
Theme 3: Advanced Breeding, Genomics & Multi-omics (Launch Event Space)
Theme 4: Sustainable & Resilient Agricultural Systems (Stair Stadium)
View session details
| Time | Launch Event Space | Stair Stadium |
|---|---|---|
| 15:45 – 16:00 | Development of non-GM “Clean” CRISPR technologies for crop improvement | Bird and invertebrate diversity in a silvopastoral system in Queensland, Australia |
| 16:00 – 16:15 | Dissecting fruit weight and quality traits in Australian passion fruit through genetic linkage mapping and QTL analysis | Transforming Geothermal Silica Waste into Bioavailable Orthosilicic Acid: A Circular Approach for Sustainable Agriculture |
| 16:15 – 16:30 | Using the CRISPR/Cas9 tool to edit genes in the OsNRAMP family related to mineral transport in the Vietnamese rice variety TBR225 | Immunogenicity and efficacy of an Australian whole-cell killed Tritrichomonas foetus vaccine in experimentally challenged young bulls |
| 16:30 – 16:45 | Enhancing Wheat Resilience Against Fusarium Crown Rot Through Landrace-Based Resistance Discovery | Characterisation of Eutypella spp. Causing Reoccurring Wilt in Cotton |
| 16:45 – 17:00 | Genome-wide association study reveals enriched diversity for Pratylenchus thornei resistance in Watkins’ wheat landraces | Sustainable Alternatives to Conventional Antimicrobials in Agricultural sectors |
17:00 – 17:15
Closing Remark
Stair Stadium