Dr Joanne Daly ‘Australia’s Agricultural Future’.

Joanne, a member of the CSIRO Executive in agribusiness, recently chaired a report on Australia’s agricultural future. The report outlines how farm output can be optimised by driving innovation through a strong research base. She  is working towards retirement from CSIRO after 32 years.  She is an evolutionary biologist with an interest in agricultural sciences and biodiversity informatics.  During her time in CSIRO she became Chief of CSIRO Entomology and then on the CSIRO Executive in agribusiness.  She chaired the expert working group on agriculture for ACOLA. 
The four learned academies (ACOLA) funded a study of Australia’s agricultural future.  The intent was to look at how Australia could optimise its output while maintaining our capacity and reputation for producing products are ‘clean, green, safe, sustainable and affordable’.   Overall, the working group concluded that the sector has a bright future and could double expert earnings in real dollars by 2050.  Its history of resilience and adaptability sets the stage for continuing evolution to changing circumstances.
However, a bright future is conditional on maintaining our natural assets, accelerating the uptake of technology and analytics, working through a wide range of community concerns about modern agricultural practice, driving innovation through a strong research base, implementing consistent standards to support our claims about our ‘clean, green’ food and by connecting farmers to consumers.  In addition, the sector will also need to compete with other parts of the economy for skilled labour and investment.    The report also tackles traditional narratives about agriculture such as aging of farmers is a serious problem and the sanctity of the family farm.   The report is at:
http://acola.org.au/index.php/projects/securing-australia-s-future/7-aus...