R&D - Australian Farm Institute

February 2021 Insights

Published 24 Feb 2021

Innovation is not a buzzword or a box to check on a business plan; it is a vital component for sustainable economic development. The Australian agriculture sector faces a serious and present threat in climate change, which cannot be addressed by incremental adaptation; innovative responses to this challenge are a…

FEATURE: The agricultural innovation conundrum

Published 24 Feb 2021

‘Australian farmers … have a strong history of embracing innovation and adopting technologies, leading to improved farming practices.’ So opens the 2020 Future of Agricultural Technologies Report. Yet in the same month, the Government released the National Agricultural Innovation Agenda as a response to multiple investigations into perceived issues with…

Innovation R&D Sustainability

Conservation agriculture in 2030: Are farmers up for the challenge?

Published 18 Jun 2020

By Teresa Fox and Richard Heath Conservation agriculture will be fundamentally different in 2030 compared to the present day. Farmers must continue to innovate, potentially at higher rates than previously seen, to overcome emerging risks and threats. Are they up for this challenge and will they be operating in a…

Agriculture Chemicals Climate Grain Policy R&D

Occasional paper: May – 2020: Regenerative agriculture – quantifying the cost

Published 22 May 2020

Regenerative agriculture describes a set of practices and principles which aim to increase biodiversity, enrich soils, improve watersheds, and enhance ecosystem services. These are goals which are obviously desirable and are understandably generating significant interest in regenerative agriculture methods amongst farmers and the wider community more generally.

Climate Environment Natural Capital NRM R&D Risk

Faster computers breeding better plants

Published 15 May 2018

AgTech Takeaways – the expanded menu (part 3): In March, I participated in an Austrade-facilitated Australian Agtech Delegation to the US and wrote a blog about my takeaways with four main points of conclusion. Over the next month each of those key points – integrated systems approaches, farming practice adaptation,…

Agriculture Cotton Grain R&D Technology

The brave new world of venture funding in agriculture

Published 23 Mar 2018

Venture capital funding of agtech is here and it is a weird and confusing place. Ever since the Monsanto acquisition of The Climate Corporation in 2013 there has been a frenzy of activity trying to cash in on the boom that is agtech. Silicon Valley is well and truly in love…

Agriculture R&D Technology

Digital literacy the key to agtech adoption

Published 1 Jan 2018

If the unconstrained implementation of digital technology could boost the value of Australian agriculture by 25% – a $20.3 billion increase from 2014-15 GVP – why is Australia not adopting agtech at a faster rate? As industry looks for ways to grow Australia’s agricultural production by 67 per cent to…

Agriculture R&D Technology

Why farmers don’t make ‘rational’ decisions

Published 14 Dec 2017

“I discovered the presence of human life in a place where economists thought it did not exist: the economy”. This is how Richard H. Thaler amusingly described the behavioural economics research for which he was recently awarded the Nobel prize for economics. Thaler has been working for decades in a…

Agriculture R&D Technology

"Right to repair" debate highlights critical issue of data rights

Published 26 Mar 2017

“Right to repair’ has become a catchcry of equipment users (including farmers) in the USA of late as a number of state legislatures propose legislation that would in some way prevent manufacturers from restricting owners or independent repairers from carrying out repairs on equipment ranging from mobile phones to large…

Agriculture Business Competition Policy R&D Telecommunications

What goes faster – farmers or racehorses?

Published 14 Nov 2016

The recent running of the Melbourne Cup provided an opportunity to compare the productivity gains by the thoroughbred racing industry and the Australian farm sector. By using improvements in the time of the winning horse as a proxy for productivity gains by the thoroughbred industry, and the recently published national…

Agriculture R&D

Digital agriculture promise out of mobile telephone reach

Published 5 Jun 2016

Lack of access to mobile telephone coverage is looming as the single biggest barrier that is preventing Australian farmers adopting a wide range of digital technologies that will provide the next big leap in agricultural productivity. This is the main conclusion arising from the “Digital Disruption in Agriculture” conference held…

Agriculture Business Policy R&D Telecommunications

To fix agricultural innovation, shut down G8 university agriculture faculties

Published 20 Mar 2016

There is widespread recognition that all is not well with the agricultural innovation system in Australia, with agricultural productivity growth essentially stalling since 1997, and agricultural research and development funding in free-fall as state governments in particular use any excuse to shut down facilities and remove resources. It might seem…

Agriculture R&D

Tag: R&D

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February 2021 Insights

FEATURE: The agricultural innovation conundrum

Conservation agriculture in 2030: Are farmers up for the challenge?

Occasional paper: May – 2020: Regenerative agriculture – quantifying the cost

Faster computers breeding better plants

The brave new world of venture funding in agriculture

Digital literacy the key to agtech adoption

Why farmers don’t make ‘rational’ decisions

"Right to repair" debate highlights critical issue of data rights

What goes faster – farmers or racehorses?

Digital agriculture promise out of mobile telephone reach

To fix agricultural innovation, shut down G8 university agriculture faculties

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