[Agriculture and Horticulture ] Weeds, weeds and more weeds

[Tran, Lorraine I]

Article on weeds in today's newspaper The Age, eco section on page 4 -
titled Plants A growing problem highlights how garden plants can become
weeds. Mention is made of the CSIRO report commissioned by the WWF
titled Jumping the Garden Fence. The report found that $1 in every $7 of
agricultural income was lost to weeds, resulting in a $4 billion annual
weed bill for farmers. Luppia 'no-mow lawn' introduced in 1970s infests
5.3 million hectares and costs graziers $38 million a year. WWF is
pushing for a national mandatory labelling scheme for invasive garden
plants.

 

 

 

If you haven't taken the opportunity to respond to Susanna Greig's
earlier email, then I would strongly encourage you to provide her with
some feedback. This is a fantastic opportunity for the development of a
useful resource to support implementation of the new study design. I
have copied in the email below.

 

Dear All,

 

After investigating the Victorian Agriculture and Horticulture Studies
VCE Study Design, I am interested to develop a resource teachers use to
provide opportunities for developing student knowledge and skills
related to weeds in Unit 3. For this reason, I am emailing now to
collect feedback from teachers using this study design. 

 

Currently I have considered some ideas which could be included in this
resource development.

1.	A summary of different strategies to manage weeds. This would
provide background knowledge students use to evaluate the most
appropriate technique to manage weeds found in a studied
agricultural/horticultural business. 
2.	A strategy with guidelines for assessing the presence and
significant effects weeds have on ag/hort businesses. 
3.	Case studies outlining successful weed management approaches in
specific ag/hort businesses. 
4.	Fact Files (or information sheets) describing the current
technologies used to prevent or manage weed infestations. 

 

Please be advised the final resource developed may include part of, or
may be different to these ideas.

 

To support this resource development, I ask if you could please contact
me with your thoughts regarding these suggestions. If you have
alternative suggestions not described above please explain what you
would like to see developed. 

 

Please be advised plans will be developed from the feedback I collect
before the 6th of March.

 

I understand many teachers may already be currently teaching this unit.
This is helpful as it is the perfect time to determine the most suitable
resource that you would find useful in your future teaching.

 

To avoid cluttering this email group, unless your suggestion requires
discussion, please email directly to: susanna.greig at une.edu.au
<mailto:susanna.greig at une.edu.au>  

 

 

Kind Regards,

Susanna Greig

Educational Officer

CRC for Australian Weed Management

School of Rural Science and Agriculture

Agronomy and Soil Science building

University of New England

Armidale 2351

Australia

ph: 02 67 732809

fax: 02 67 733238

email: susanna.greig at une.edu.au <mailto:susanna.greig at une.edu.au> 

 

 

 

 

Regards,

Lorraine Tran

Technology Curriculum Manager

VCAA. 

Telephone: (03)9651 4407

Fax:           (03) 9651 4324

Mobile:      041 933 1630

Email: tran.lorraine.i at edumail.vic.gov.au

 

The VCAA provides curriculum and assessment for prep to Year 12. The
VCAA is a statutory body directly responsible to the Minister for
Education and Training and serves government and non-government schools.

 



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