The role of land use planning in semi-arid areas
Worldwide, the semi-arid grazing and cropping regions are being subjected to severe overuse. Australian semi-arid regions have been cleared on a vast scale for marginal cropping. Grazing land has been overused and shows widespread signs of vegetation and soil degradation. Ecological realism on land capability based on objective condition monitoring, is essential to land management if sustainable production is to be achieved. The Land Care Movement can markedly influence this achievement. The margins of semi-arid cropland and the application of ecologically-based animal stocking rates require attention in several States. Drought assistance policy requires amendment to safeguard natural pastures. Lease covenants have a potentially central role to play in land administration.
Drought in Australia: Still a problem of perception?
Some 19 years after a prior discussion of the perception of drought in Australia (Geographical Review 1969), in which it was suggested that attitudes to drought in Australia had shown the importance of varying perceptions of the phenomenon, a review of official drought relief policies provides further evidence of continuing ambivalence towards drought and its impacts upon Australian society. The recent emergence of a national policy on drought relief hides considerable and continuing variation between the States in their policies toward the mitigation of drought impacts. This ambivalence and lack of an effective national policy is likely to come under increasing critical scrutiny in the near future, if the current advances in drought forecasting capability continue. More accurate forecasts of drought, however, may raise their own separate problems for the rural community.
First Insights into the Draft Genome Sequence of the Endophyte Paenibacillus amylolyticus Strain GM1FR, Isolated from Festuca rubra L.
ABSTRACT Paenibacillus amylolyticus strain GM1FR is an endophyte isolated from aerial plant tissues of Festuca rubra L. Here, we report the draft genome sequence (7.3 Mb) of GM1FR containing 6,241 protein-coding genes, some of which are potentially involved in plant growth promotion and biocontrol.