Australia
September 22, 2008
A leading CSIRO scientist today
called on Australia’s agricultural scientists, educators and
industries to rise to the emerging global food security
challenges.
In
a keynote address to the
Australian Society of Agronomy Conference, the Director of
CSIRO’s Agricultural
Sustainability Initiative, Dr Brian Keating (photo), said there
is evidence that rates of increase in agricultural productivity
are easing both in Australia and overseas.
“This is happening at a time when demand for additional food and
fibre production has never been higher and supply is
increasingly constrained by the availability of land, water,
nutrient and energy resources and the more recent diversion of
food crops to biofuels programs,” Dr Keating said.
With the United Nations predicting the world population to
increase by 2.5 billion by 2050 and with dramatic changes in
food consumption patterns associated with economic development
in Asia, there is an urgent need to face up to the challenge of
doubling food production over the next 50 years.
This will require a new commitment to agricultural R&D, yet
developed countries including Australia have reduced their
levels of public investment over the last decade.
“We are going to need a ’revolution‘ in agricultural
productivity over the coming decades to meet these challenges –
particularly in terms of the efficiency with which we use land,
water, nutrient and energy resources in agricultural
production,” Dr Keating said.
In addition to these resource constraints, agriculture in
Australia and globally accounts for up to one quarter of the
direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions annually.
Dr Keating said Australian agriculture has a big challenge ahead
of it as it seeks to reduce its greenhouse emissions footprint
while raising its productivity levels. “On top of this,
agriculture is probably the most exposed sector to climate
change and Australian agriculture is as exposed as any in the
world.”
He says, while he is optimistic that agricultural science and
industry innovation is up to these challenges, one major concern
is the current low popularity of agricultural science as a
potential career.
”Young people seem to want to choose a career whereby they can
change the world or, better still, save the world, yet
agriculture is not on their career horizon.
“They appear to see agriculture as ’low-tech‘ and disconnected
from contemporary global challenges. The reality is they could
not do better than to get involved in a science-based career
that helps the world solve the pressing problems of the 21st
Century – the greenhouse effect, climate change, land
degradation and global food security.”
He says that while Australia tackles its own agricultural
challenges and opportunities, the skills, expertise and
technologies developed here have much to offer in international
agricultural research partnerships.
The CSIRO Agricultural Sustainability Initiative draws on the
skills of research scientists across the breadth of CSIRO to
work on the productivity and sustainability challenges in
Australian agriculture, forestry and land-use systems and seeks
to connect these science skills with international partners in
addressing global food security. |
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