Source: The Agricultural Gazette, May 1965 article by F.D. Mackenzie manager Agricultural College and Research Station Yanco.

The history of this gemstone of our community is wide and varied.

It served its purpose for the Department of Education as the Riverina Boys Welfare Farm and then housed the Italian Prisoner of War Camp 15. Yanco Agricultural Institute's historical significance includes it being one of few POW camp sites that still have the existing structures that housed the interns many years ago.

The Department of Agriculture, now known more as the Department of Primary Industries, has been integral in agricultural advisory services, agricultural education as well as research and development.

Over generations Yanco Agricultural Institute has achieved significant outcomes for agricultural industries with research in vegetables, pastures, weeds, livestock, horticulture, cotton and numerous grain crops including rice, canola and pulse crops.

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Extensive trials over many years looked at insect and disease management, fertiliser rates, sowing time, irrigation scheduling plus breeding and variety assessments.

One of the major success stories for the institute has been the rice breeding and agronomy program.

Over 95 per cent of the Australian rice crop are varieties that were developed at the institute.

The breeding program is complemented by researchers working on cereal chemistry, crop nutrition, agronomy and pest management.

The rice breeding program has been essential because a "purity within a variety is of utmost importance". (The Agricultural Gazette, May 1965). A rice breeding program was established early in the 1930s at Yanco under Walter Poggendorff.

The rice breeding program also took on the responsibility of producing pure seed of the commercial variety being sown.

While the current Department of Primary Industries strategic plan has a new focus that does not involve breeding programs, the impact of the rice breeding work done at Yanco Agricultural Institute has been of international significance that is etched in history.

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