Mark Congreve’s decades of dedication to agricultural extension has been recognised, with the industry consultant being named the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) 2025 northern Seed of Light recipient.

Arthur Gearon, GRDC Northern Panel Chair, presented Mark Congreve with the prestigious annual award at the GRDC Grains Research Update in Goondiwindi last night (March 4).

The Seed of Light recognises the outstanding contribution, dedication and commitment of individuals to communicating research outcomes to people working in the grains industry.

Mr Congreve is a senior consultant at Independent Consultants Australia Network (ICAN), an agricultural consultancy specialising in understanding and facilitating change within Australian cropping industries.

2025 northern Seed of Light recipient Mark Congreve. Photo: GRDC

With extensive experience across various agricultural industries, Mr Congreve has hosted numerous extension activities in fields such as weed, insect, and disease management, application technology, biotechnology, market research and more.

“People like Mark are essential to sharing GRDC’s outcomes as we work to enhance the productivity, profitability and sustainability of Australian grain growers,” Mr Gearon said.

“Mark has been with ICAN since 2011 and has had more than 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, extension, development and senior project management for agribusiness companies.

“His understanding of the challenges faced by growers has made him a go-to adviser and a respected figure in the industry.”

Upon accepting the award, Mr Congreve acknowledged the critical role that extension and communication play in assisting growers.

“It’s a critical part of the puzzle. We can do all the research in the world, but if it's not extended to users, we're not going to get any practice change as a result of the research,” he said.

“When growers and agronomists ring up and say ‘we talked about this issue six months ago; we went out and made some changes in the field. And, gee, I'm really surprised that I've got a much better result’ – it’s rewarding not only to encourage practice change, but see it adopted in the paddock.

The Seed of Light award is further recognition that the industry sees value in what we do at ICAN and its value to the grains industry.

Mr Congreve's career began in multinational chemical companies, developing a strong background in technical understanding, project management and commercial activities. He later transitioned to a consulting role with ICAN.

Much of his current work focuses on training agronomists on weed management and herbicide use, emphasising the importance of extending research to users to ensure practice change.

“A lot of our training and extension work is more focused at the agronomist level for them to further communicate it to their network of growers," Mr Congreve said.

When discussing what works best in the weed space, its complex and often time consuming to get product application correct. From an applicator’s perspective, there's a great desire to do things better, cheaper, faster, and that's where some of the compromises come in.

“We must be much more understanding of how we're going to optimise products and how we're going to make them work, because weed resistance has made everything so much harder.

“Generally, all the answers aren't coming out of a single research program. Our role as extension consultants is to be across all the research and package the important pieces into delivery messages that pull it all together in a format that growers can understand and action.”

The GRDC Grains Research Update – Goondiwindi concludes today (March 5) and will be followed by a one-day regional in Pallamallawa on March 6.

To learn more about GRDC awards, including past winners, visit the GRDC website.