Vic Hub Drought-Resilience Scholarship Winner 2024

Muhammad Adnan is one of the five researchers into drought resilience who was awarded the inaugural Vic Hub Drought Resilience Scholarship

Project title: Studying the Impact of Drought on the Biology of Weeds for Their Improved Management

This study seeks to understand the relative tolerance of C3 and C4 weed species to drought. In doing so, it seeks to understand the potential for proliferation under different drought scenarios and identify innovative interventions for their management.

We interviewed Muhammad to gain deeper insights into his research journey and its potential impact on Australian agriculture.

Q: When did you begin your research? When are you anticipating finishing?

A: I started my PhD degree in February 2024, and plan to finish it in August 2027. I will complete this component of my research in June 2025.

Q: How will your research help Australian farming and rural & regional communities prepare for drought, and be drought resilient? 

 A: This research will help to enhance the drought resilience of Australian farmers by improving knowledge regarding the impact of drought on weed behaviour and interference with crop production. Farmers will know which type of weeds they should expect to be more problematic in different drought scenarios. The understanding of weed biology in response to drought will also help predict weed emergence patterns and potential management challenges in field conditions.

Q: What does the Vic Hub scholarship mean for your work? How will it help?

This scholarship will directly benefit the improved delivery of one of my PhD project objectives, add value to my overall research, and provide me with the opportunity to interact with researchers and farmers through Victoria Drought Innovation Hub.

 Q. And what will it enable you to do that you wouldn’t have been able to do previously?

A. Firstly, this scholarship will provide financial support for field tours, which are necessary for collecting weed seeds from different locations. Secondly, the scholarship will enable me to purchase essential consumables required for my experiments. Finally, the scholarship will give me the opportunity to attend conferences, which will allow me to present my findings, engage with experts in the field, and receive invaluable feedback that will help refine my research.

Q: What drew you to agriculture?

A: I was born and raised in a city with no direct connections to agriculture. As I grew older, I realised how important agriculture is in our daily lives. However, it faces many challenges, such as climate change, water scarcity and labour shortages. This insight inspired me to think more about how we can solve these issues and make our agriculture more resilient, sustainable and efficient. The more I learned about agriculture’s role, the more I became interested in working in this area.

Q: What’s a highlight for you so far in your project research?

A: I have not yet started my main glasshouse experiments; however, so far, I have studied the seed-germination response of one weed species (gazania) to different drought levels in Petri dishes and found that gazania has great potential to germinate at high drought stress levels.