The National Variety Trials (NVT) program celebrates 20 years in 2025 of empowering Australian grain growers and their advisers with trusted, independent results to support grain variety decisions.
Established by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) in 2005, NVT has evolved into the largest coordinated variety trial network in the world.
Each year more than 640 trials are conducted across over 300 locations nationwide, encompassing 10 different crop species and contributing to a database that includes more than 1.5 million plot points.
GRDC managing director Nigel Hart said over the past two decades the NVT has been a transformative force, providing growers with credible insights into newly released varieties that drive the rapid adoption of superior genetics.
“The NVT program is globally recognised and incredibly unique, due to its scale, independence and the sheer number of participating organisations,” he said.
“When the NVT was established 20 years ago, its aim was to be a trusted source of independent variety performance data and accelerate the adoption of superior varieties from breeding programs.
“At the time, it took an average of 10 years for a new variety to reach peak adoption rates.”
Mr Hart said the program shaved two to three years from adoption rates on a national scale, while also boosting the area planted to new varieties.
“Survey data shows more than 74 per cent of Australian grain growers are currently using NVT data to inform variety selection and we are working to increase that to 90 per cent of growers by the end of this decade,” he said.
“Not only is variety adoption occurring earlier, but growers are also planting more area to new varieties. That could be, for example, planting 100 hectares of a new variety, compared to 20.”
GRDC NVT senior manager Sean Coffey said the program, which provides comparative information on yield performance, grain quality, and disease resistance for commercially available varieties, aimed to improve industry impact beyond variety selection.
“The program is always looking to evolve and improve, and we’ve continued to do that over the past 20 years,” he said.
“Since inception in 2005, NVT has delivered on its purpose, and as we approach peak grower adoption, we need to look for new ways to drive impact for growers and create additional value for the grains industry.
“We’ve expanded our scope beyond variety testing, and during the next 20 years GRDC is aiming to leverage the NVT program even further.”
Recent innovations such as the NVT Resource Sharing and NVT Pre-commercial Purchasing models have been implemented with this aim in mind.
Through NVT Resource Sharing, researchers can now use NVT’s extensive dataset, harvested grain, or trial sites for grains industry research not related to variety selection.
As a result, it has become an enabling platform making possible a wide range of projects that benefit the Australian grains industry every year.
On the other hand, the NVT Pre-commercial Purchasing model removes limits on the number of pre-commercial varieties a breeder can enter into the NVT program; while also opening the door for international breeders to enter the program for the first time, promoting better global access to future varieties for Australian growers.
With further innovations still to come, Mr Coffey said he was excited.
“It’s an exciting time for NVT as we find new and innovative ways to create more value across the entire grains industry,” he said.
In recognising the 20-year milestone, Mr Hart thanked the program’s many stakeholders, which include growers, trial service providers, GRDC staff, agronomists, research organisations and breeding companies.
“We sincerely thank everyone involved over the past two decades for their tremendous efforts in maintaining the program’s effectiveness and delivering high-quality results to growers nationwide,” he said.
“As the NVT looks to the future, its goal remains the same; to help growers optimise system profitability through appropriate variety choices based on reliable, independent data.”
For more information on the NVT 20 years’ celebrations visit nvt.grdc.com.au
