Shire of Coorow approves picking of Australian native flora as part of uni student’s research into crops

The Shire of Coorow has granted a university student permission to collect native flora species to research their potential as crops. Edmund Selassie Ahiakpa recently started a PhD in the School of Molecular and Life Sciences at Curtin University, and as part of his research will collect plant materials near Midlands Road and Wubin-Gunyidi Road in Gunyidi. Mr Ahiakpa will assess the potential of native Australian legume species silky glycine (glycine canescens), native liquorice (glycyrrhiza acanthocarpa), native wisteria (hardenbergia comptoniana) and running postman (kennedia prostrata), as grain crops. He is one of 23 postgraduate scholarship students chosen to undertake the WA Agricultural Research Collaboration’s Postgraduate Research Scholarship Program. At the September meeting, the council approved the motion. Mr Ahaikpa, along with other university representatives, can forage for the species so long as it does not create any disturbances to the habitat.