tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/agriculture-research-8222/articlesAgriculture research – The Conversation2019-11-11T19:02:10Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1242902019-11-11T19:02:10Z2019-11-11T19:02:10ZThe milk, the whole milk and nothing but the milk: the story behind our dairy woes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301045/original/file-20191111-194675-156dl7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=604%2C7%2C4315%2C3268&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A dairy cow grazes on the lawns in front of Parliament House in Canberra in 2015, as part of an industry event.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The plight of Australia’s dairy farmers is on the political agenda this week, after One Nation leader Pauline Hanson <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/nationals-no-longer-party-of-the-bush-pauline-hanson-lashes-out-after-milk-price-floor-push-fails/news-story/22a49ee1caefef5e504f8c306254700f">narrowly failed in her Senate bid</a> for a minimum milk price. But getting fair payment for their goods is far from the only challenge dairy farmers face.</p>
<p>Pressure has been mounting on the industry for the past decade. Existing milk alternatives are growing their market share, helped by a rise in veganism and public concern around animal welfare. The agriculture sector is under pressure to reduce its contribution to climate change, and technology advances mean milk may one day be produced without cows at all. </p>
<p>All this has been compounded by devastating and prolonged drought. So here’s the full story of the hurdles farmers face, now and in the future, to get milk into your fridge.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301053/original/file-20191111-194637-rnr31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301053/original/file-20191111-194637-rnr31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301053/original/file-20191111-194637-rnr31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301053/original/file-20191111-194637-rnr31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301053/original/file-20191111-194637-rnr31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301053/original/file-20191111-194637-rnr31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301053/original/file-20191111-194637-rnr31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Dairy cattle at milking time at a farm in Rochester, Victoria.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Tracey Nearmy</span></span>
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<h2>Fluctuating farm gate price</h2>
<p>The rate at which processors pay farmers for milk is known as the <a href="https://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/industry/prices/farmgate-milk-price">farm gate price</a>. The prices are not regulated and are set by market forces.</p>
<p>In 2016 <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2016/June/Dairy_industry_developments">the milk price crashed</a> when Australia’s two largest dairy processors, Murray Goulburn and Fonterra, lowered the price they would pay from about 48 cents a litre to as low as 40 cents.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/un-climate-change-report-land-clearing-and-farming-contribute-a-third-of-the-worlds-greenhouse-gases-121551">UN climate change report: land clearing and farming contribute a third of the world's greenhouse gases</a>
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<p>This dramatically cut the incomes of milk suppliers. The number of dairy farmers in Australia fell by 600, or 9% <a href="https://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/industry/farm-facts/cows-and-farms">over four years</a>. This exit has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/feb/24/drought-and-low-milk-prices-push-dairy-farmers-to-the-brink">exacerbated by drought</a>.</p>
<p>Since then, the farm gate milk price has increased and in 2019–20 is <a href="http://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/agricultural-commodities/sep-2019/dairy">expected to be 51 cents per litre</a>, due to a weaker Australian dollar and demand from export markets. But forecast global prices for butter, cheese and whole milk powder this financial year remain below that of previous years.</p>
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<h2>Methane, and milk alternatives</h2>
<p>Methane and other livestock emissions <a href="http://www.agriculture.gov.au/ag-farm-food/climatechange/australias-farming-future/livestock-emissions">comprise about 10%</a> of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. </p>
<p>As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made clear in its <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl-report-download-page/">land use report in August</a>, changes must be made across the food production chain if the world is to keep global warming below the critical 1.5°C threshold. For beef and dairy livestock, this means changes such as land and manure management, higher-quality feed and genetic improvements. Meeting this challenge cost-effectively, while improving productivity, is no small task.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/crying-over-plant-based-milk-neither-science-nor-history-favours-a-dairy-monopoly-123852">Crying over plant-based milk: neither science nor history favours a dairy monopoly</a>
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<p>Technology may help in curbing greenhouse gas emissions from cows, but it also threatens to replace the dairy industry altogether. Advances in biotech may enable liquid analogous to milk to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/lab-grown-dairy-the-next-food-frontier-117963">produced through bioculture systems</a>, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141022-lab-grown-milk-biotechnology-gmo-food-climate/">without a cow in sight</a>. </p>
<p>Elsewhere, the rise of plant-based alternatives derived from soybeans, almonds, oats and other sources threatens traditional milk products. This can partly be attributed to increasing numbers of people adopting a vegan diet. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301047/original/file-20191111-194661-1t0vqpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301047/original/file-20191111-194661-1t0vqpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301047/original/file-20191111-194661-1t0vqpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301047/original/file-20191111-194661-1t0vqpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301047/original/file-20191111-194661-1t0vqpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301047/original/file-20191111-194661-1t0vqpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301047/original/file-20191111-194661-1t0vqpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Farmers must overcome a host of challenges to deliver milk to consumers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Miller/AAP</span></span>
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<h2>Taking calves away from cows</h2>
<p>For a mammal to produce milk, it must usually become pregnant and produce offspring. Female calves generally go into a farm’s pool of replacement animals, while male dairy calves are sold.</p>
<p>Pure-breed male dairy calves do not naturally lay down a lot of muscle and so do not generally make good beef livestock. Many are sent to the abattoir for slaughter, typically between 5 and 30 days of age. This practice has prompted welfare concerns and means the industry must carefully manage the handling and transport of vulnerable young calves.</p>
<p>Potential solutions include artificial insemination of cows using only semen that will produce female calves. The use of this technology is limited because it reduces conception rates.</p>
<p>There is also growing public concern about the separation of cows and calves not sent to the abbatoir. The calves are typically taken within the first 12-24 hours and reared together in a shed, where they are fed milk or milk replacer. This is thought to maximise the amount of saleable milk and minimise disease transfer from cow to calf, <a href="https://www.animalhealthaustralia.com.au/what-we-do/endemic-disease/johnes-disease/jd-and-dairy-cattle/three-step-calf-rearing-plan/">particularly Johne’s Disease</a>. However, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022030219304175">recent research</a> has found <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022030219304369">little evidence</a> to support these practices. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022030219304369">Research has shown</a> that calf-cow separation in the first day of life causes lower distress than abrupt separation at a few weeks of age or older, when the bond is stronger. This is not to say that early separation is not a concern. Rather, in the face of consumer demands for certain ethical standards, simple fixes may be hard to implement. </p>
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<span class="caption">Topless animal welfare activists protest in Melbourne in February 2019 to raise awareness of what they claim is cruelty within the dairy industry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ellen Smith/AAP</span></span>
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<h2>The message for consumers</h2>
<p>Challenges to the dairy industry will take time and effort to address. Some, such as drought, are out of farmers’ control. Dry conditions and high cost of water, fodder and electricity have <a href="http://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/agricultural-commodities/jun-2019/dairy">forced farmers to cull less productive dairy cows</a>, leading to a decline in production. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/supermarkets-are-not-milking-dairy-farmers-dry-the-myth-that-obscures-the-real-problem-105300">Supermarkets are not milking dairy farmers dry: the myth that obscures the real problem</a>
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<p>The pressures, and associated debt, create intense stress for farmers, increase family tensions, and have negative flow-on effects throughout rural communities.</p>
<p>Putting aside the political push for a regulated milk price, the key message for dairy consumers is clear. If we want our milk produced in a certain way, we must pay a fair market-based price to cover the costs to farmers of fulfilling our wants.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124290/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Fisher has received funding from Dairy Australia, Meat and Livestock Australia and Parmalat for research into animal welfare issues in dairy production and calf transport. </span></em></p>Pressure is mounting on Australia’s dairy farmers, from farm gate prices to animal welfare concerns, and technology that could produce milk without cows.Andrew Fisher, Professor of Cattle & Sheep Production Medicine, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1200512019-07-22T10:58:27Z2019-07-22T10:58:27ZMicro-naps for plants: Flicking the lights on and off can save energy without hurting indoor agriculture harvests<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284584/original/file-20190717-147270-19g06yc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=328%2C194%2C4277%2C3113&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pulses of light followed by extended dark periods might help make indoor agricultural production more sustainable.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/led-lighting-used-grow-lettuce-inside-1384001177?studio=1">DutchScenery/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A nighttime arrival at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport flies you over the bright pink glow of vegetable production greenhouses. Growing crops under artificial light is <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/at-396-cagr-vertical-farming-and-plant-factory-market-size-projected-to-cross-usd-11000-million-by-2024-2019-02-21">gaining momentum</a>, particularly in regions where produce prices can be high during seasons when sunlight is sparse.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.wur.nl/en/Dossiers/file/Vertical-farming.htm">The Netherlands</a> is just one country that has rapidly adopted <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled-environment_agriculture">controlled-environment agriculture</a>, where high-value specialty crops like herbs, fancy lettuces and tomatoes are produced in year-round illuminated greenhouses. <a href="http://www.verticalfarm.com/?page_id=36">Advocates suggest</a> these completely enclosed buildings – or <a href="https://urbanagnews.com/blog/japan-special-report-plant-factories-with-artificial-light-pfal/">plant factories</a> – could be a way to repurpose urban space, decrease food miles and provide local produce to city dwellers.</p>
<p>One of the central problems of this process is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/food-security-vertical-farming-sounds-fantastic-until-you-consider-its-energy-use-102657">high monetary cost of providing artificial light</a>, usually via a combination of red and blue light-emitting diodes. <a href="https://doi.org/10.2183/pjab.89.447">Energy costs</a> sometimes exceed 25% of the operational outlay. How can growers, particularly in the developing world, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/usa/people-power-costs-keep-indoor-farming-down-earth">compete when the sun is free</a>? Higher energy use also translates to more carbon emissions, rather than the decreased carbon footprint sustainably farmed plants can provide.</p>
<p>I’ve <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kIh3BRwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">studied how light affects plant growth and development</a> for over 30 years. I recently found myself wondering: Rather than growing plants under a repeating cycle of one day of light and one night of darkness, what if the same daylight was split into pulses lasting only hours, minutes or seconds?</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284583/original/file-20190717-147295-16meq90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284583/original/file-20190717-147295-16meq90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284583/original/file-20190717-147295-16meq90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284583/original/file-20190717-147295-16meq90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284583/original/file-20190717-147295-16meq90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284583/original/file-20190717-147295-16meq90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284583/original/file-20190717-147295-16meq90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284583/original/file-20190717-147295-16meq90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Indoor plants need plenty of artificial light.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/ventilator-special-led-lights-belts-above-1428413504?studio=1">josefkubes/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<h2>Short bursts of light and dark</h2>
<p>So my colleagues and I <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envexpbot.2019.103803">designed an experiment</a>. We’d apply the normal amount of light in total, just break it up over different chunks of time.</p>
<p>Of course plants depend on light for photosynthesis, the process that in nature uses the sun’s energy to merge carbon dioxide and water into sugars that fuel plant metabolism. Light also directs growth and development through its signals about day and night, and monkeying with that information stream might have disastrous results.</p>
<p>That’s because breaking something good into smaller bits sometimes creates new problems. Imagine how happy you’d be to receive a US$100 bill – but not as thrilled with the equivalent 10,000 pennies. We suspected a plant’s internal clock wouldn’t accept the same luminous currency when broken into smaller denominations.</p>
<p>And that’s exactly what we <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envexpbot.2019.103803">demonstrated in our experiments</a>. Kale, turnip or beet seedlings exposed to cycles of 12 hours of light, 12 hours dark for four days grew normally, accumulating pigments and growing larger. When we decreased the frequency of light-dark cycles to 6 hours, 3 hours, 1 hour or 30 minutes, the plants revolted. We delivered the same amount of light, just applied in different-sized chunks, and the seedlings did not appreciate the treatment. </p>
<p>The same amount of light applied in shorter intervals over the day caused plants to grow more like they were in darkness. We suspect the light pulses conflicted with a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.106.040980">plant’s internal clock</a>, and the seedlings had no idea what time of day it was. Stems stretched taller in an attempt to find more light, and processes like pigment production were put on hold.</p>
<p>But when we applied light in much, much shorter bursts, something remarkable happened. Plants grown under five-second on/off cycles appeared to be almost identical to those grown under the normal light/dark period. It’s almost like the internal clock can’t get started properly when sunrise comes every five seconds, so the plants don’t seem to mind a day that is a few seconds long.</p>
<p>Just as we prepared to publish, undergraduate collaborator Paul Kusuma found that our discovery was not so novel. We soon realized we’d actually rediscovered something already known for 88 years. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture <a href="https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/IND43968018/PDF">saw this same phenomenon in 1931</a> when they grew plants under light pulses of various durations. Their work in mature plants matches what we observed in seedlings with remarkable similarity.</p>
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<span class="caption">A 1931 study by Garner and Allard tracked the growth of Yellow Cosmos flowers under light pulses of various durations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">J. Agri. Res. 42: National Agricultural Library, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>Not only was all of this a retread of an old idea, but pulses of light do not save any energy. Five seconds on and off uses the same amount of energy as the lights being on for 12 hours; the lights are still on for half the day. </p>
<p>But what would happen if we extended the dark period? Five seconds on. Six seconds off. Or 10 seconds off. Or 20 seconds off. Maybe 80 seconds off? They didn’t try that in 1931.</p>
<h2>Building in extra downtime</h2>
<p>It turns out that the plants don’t mind a little downtime. After applying light for five seconds to activate photosynthesis and biological processes like pigment accumulation, we turned the light off for 10, or sometimes 20 seconds. Under these extended dark periods, the seedlings grew just as well as they had when the light and dark periods were equal. If this could be done on the scale of an indoor farm, it might translate to a significant energy savings, at least 30% and maybe more.</p>
<p>Recent yet-to-be published work in our lab has shown that the same concept works in leaf lettuces; they also don’t mind an extended dark time between pulses. In some cases, the lettuces are green instead of purple and have larger leaves. That means a grower can produce a diversity of products, and with higher marketable product weight, by turning the lights off.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284079/original/file-20190715-173342-1fvujyt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284079/original/file-20190715-173342-1fvujyt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284079/original/file-20190715-173342-1fvujyt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284079/original/file-20190715-173342-1fvujyt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284079/original/file-20190715-173342-1fvujyt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284079/original/file-20190715-173342-1fvujyt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284079/original/file-20190715-173342-1fvujyt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One variety of lettuce grew purple when given a 10-second dark period. They look similar to those grown with a five-second dark period, yet use 33% less energy. Extending the dark period to 20 seconds yielded green plants with more biomass.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">J. Feng, K. Folta</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Learning that plants can be grown under bursts of light rather than continuous illumination provides a way to potentially trim the expensive energy budget of indoor agriculture. More fresh vegetables could be grown with less energy, making the process more sustainable. My colleagues and I think this innovation could ultimately help drive new business and feed more people – and do so with less environmental impact.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article was updated with a corrected legend on the photograph of the plants grown in 1931.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120051/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin M. Folta received funding from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture and Vindara Inc to work on questions in agricultural lighting. He is affiliated with Eggsotics Eggs and Produce where his family grows some direct-market produce under hydroponic and/or artificial light conditions. He is reimbursed for travel related to talks in research and science communication. A full list of prior research funding may be seen at <a href="http://www.kevinfolta.com/transparency">www.kevinfolta.com/transparency</a></span></em></p>Indoor plant factories have high energy costs since LEDs replace the sunlight outdoor plants get for free. Scientists found a way to dial back how much light is needed by breaking it into tiny bursts.Kevin M. Folta, Professor of Horticultural Sciences and Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1110062019-02-14T14:06:01Z2019-02-14T14:06:01ZWhy poor storage and handling are to blame for Uganda’s poor quality seed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258703/original/file-20190213-181619-1phbih5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Ugandan family works on their farm near the capital Kampala. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Khaled Elfiqi</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The quality of purchased seeds, such as maize, groundnuts and others, is a major concern in Uganda. </p>
<p>Evidence from recent studies indicates that farmers all over the country have been <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jdevst/v44y2008i4p586-612.html">slow to adopt</a> improved seeds, such as those that protect against drought. Farmers prefer to use seeds they’ve saved from the last season; these are generally of poor quality and don’t protect against weather problems. This suggests that, for Uganda’s farmers, the cost of improved seeds – which are more expensive than home-saved seeds – outweighs any of the benefits. </p>
<p>Farmers are also concerned about the quality of agricultural inputs like fertiliser, seeds and pesticides. They worry about the potential for these to be adulterated and contaminated. For example, a recent study <a href="https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/132/3/1055/3064350?redirectedFrom=fulltext">found</a> that a bag of fertiliser picked at random had only half of the nitrogen content it should. This meant there was little value to using it. The authors also looked at yields from improved maize seeds and discovered a similar situation.</p>
<p>One reason that’s widely cited for low yields is deliberate adulteration of seeds by sellers along the supply chain. The assumption is that sellers deliberately introduce grains or even stones into bags of seed to increase the weight. When the farmer uses these seeds, most don’t germinate. However, no one has ever identified adulteration – it’s simply assumed this is what is causing the problem. </p>
<p>This means that agricultural policy has tended to focus on certification of seeds, including labelling at the source, <a href="https://www.theigc.org/blog/the-supply-chain-for-seed-in-uganda-where-does-it-all-go-wrong/#_ftn2">e-verification</a> and requiring bags that are not easy to open until the farmer has them. But little effort has been made to improve the quality control of the seed supply chain as a whole, including transportation networks and storage at the end seller. </p>
<p>Uganda’s certification and oversight of seeds has proven inadequate for ensuring that farmers obtain good quality inputs. Neither seed companies nor input shops are well regulated and market failures have emerged, meaning that the access to optimal quality seeds is still very limited.</p>
<p>Our project expands on the recent work of researchers looking at the quality of agricultural inputs in Africa. To diagnose where quality issues crop up in Uganda, we explored 21 varieties of maize across the supply chain. What we <a href="https://www.theigc.org/blog/the-supply-chain-for-seed-in-uganda-where-does-it-all-go-wrong/#_ftn1">found</a> is that quality, rather than genetic purity, appears to be the main problem. The results are consistent with mishandling and poor storage of seeds.</p>
<h2>What our tests found</h2>
<p>To collect a representative sample of seeds – as if an actual farmer would have purchased those seeds – we employed a mystery shopper approach. A well-trained team of enumerators self-identified as farmers and purchased seeds from a census of companies at all levels of the supply chain, across three districts in northern Uganda and the capital, Kampala.</p>
<p>The seed samples were then sent to testing facilities in Uganda for purity and performance examination. To identify how genetically similar the seeds were to each other (or in other words, to screen if any seed was adulterated or contaminated) the sample of seeds was shipped to a laboratory in Australia to test for <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ac44/802bf3331da102872cf851ea1f879b32bfe4.pdf">genetic purity</a>. </p>
<p>Seeds were tested on three main indicators. First were DNA tests for genetic purity. Second was a physical test for the percentage of the seed containing stones, dirt, or sand. Last came germination tests – defined as the percentage of seeds that can germinate normally under standard conditions. Vigour tests determined the percentage of seeds able to germinate under suboptimal conditions and after storage while moisture tests determine how much water has gotten into the seeds, which leads to lower quality germination.</p>
<p>We did not find evidence of serious seed adulteration by sellers. Instead, we find high levels of seed genetic and physical purity across all levels of the supply chain. Seed samples collected are genetically very similar to each other and on average presented good physical purity (above 99%), or good content of pure seeds (and absence of inert matter or dirt, sand, stones, sticks, and stems.</p>
<h2>Poor handling</h2>
<p>Results from tests of vigour and moisture content, combined with high levels of DNA similarity, lead us to believe that the causes of low quality are most likely due to poor management in the downstream levels of the supply chain (wholesalers and retailers) that create poor storage conditions.</p>
<p>Monitoring mechanisms, collective action by stakeholders, and further exploration on seeds during storage and transportation are key for better seeds. Although rules are in place, few resources are available for regulators, meaning that currently seed monitoring is almost non-existent. </p>
<p>On top of seed certification, implementing complementary mechanisms, such as regular quality control inspections, is key.</p>
<h2>Future evidence is needed</h2>
<p>A note of caution is needed for these results. We were only able to trace the supply chain of maize in one year, and across three districts (plus Kampala). The results are potentially limited in their application to other crops, years and districts. We are also limited in our sample size as we were only able to collect 120 samples in total. </p>
<p>A replication of this proof of concept is needed in different regions, seasons, and years to confirm the absence of counterfeit seeds more broadly. We also recommend further studies on the practices and conditions during seed storage and transportation. Future evidence is needed to determine conclusively what is driving low quality seeds in Uganda.</p>
<p>If the results we obtained can be generalised, it is possible they could significantly change the way policy makers approach the issue of low quality seeds in Uganda. If adulteration is not the problem, but instead storage and transportation are the major constraints to quality, money currently being spent on certification processes could be better spent. Future work will need to confirm this interpretation is in fact true.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111006/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors received funding from the International Growth Centre (IGC) and the Northern Uganda-Transforming the Economy through Climate-Smart Agribusiness Development Market Development (NU-TEC MD) to run this study. </span></em></p>Little effort has been made to improve the quality control of the seed supply chain as a whole in Uganda.Nathan Fiala, Assistant Professor, Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/672872017-01-23T17:36:24Z2017-01-23T17:36:24ZMind the gaps: Reducing hunger by improving yields on small farms<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151878/original/image-20170105-18662-laulji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Soybean farmer in Malawi</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ifpri/28438777745/in/album-72157676131570885/">IFPRI/Mitchell Maher via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the most urgent challenges we face in the next several decades is feeding a growing world population without irreparably damaging Earth’s land, air and water systems. Nearly 800 million people worldwide are undernourished today. The U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals call for <a href="http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/hunger/">ending hunger and achieving food security by 2030</a>.</p>
<p>The world is making progress in reducing hunger, but we have further to go. The annual <a href="http://ebrary.ifpri.org/utils/getfile/collection/p15738coll2/id/130708/filename/130919.pdf">Global Hunger Index</a>, produced by the <a href="http://www.ifpri.org/">International Food Policy Research Institute</a>, scores nations based on the proportion of their total population that is undernourished and several metrics that focus on children. Since 2000, the GHI has decreased across all regions of the world, but 50 countries – mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia – still have alarming or severe hunger rates.</p>
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<p>At the <a href="http://environment.umn.edu/discovery/gli/">Global Landscapes Initiative</a> in the University of Minnesota’s <a href="http://environment.umn.edu/">Institute on the Environment</a>, our research focuses on increasing global food security while reducing harmful impacts from agriculture to Earth’s natural resources. We have found that one key strategy to combating food insecurity – lack of access to nutritious foods – is increasing food production on small farms. </p>
<p>There are tremendous opportunities to increase yields throughout South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Increasing yields through new farming practices could triple maize production in sub-Saharan Africa and increase wheat and rice production in South Asia by about 50 percent. Gains on this scale could dramatically reduce hunger and food insecurity in some of the most vulnerable nations in the world. </p>
<h2>The importance of small farms</h2>
<p>The U.N. <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4040e.pdf">estimates</a> that more than 70 percent of the world’s food-insecure people live in rural areas of developing countries where farming is typically the dominant land use and source of income. My colleague Leah Samberg recently led a study that combined household census data with satellite-derived land-cover data of croplands and pastures to <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/12/124010">map the average farm size</a> in regions of the world dominated by smallholder farmers. In many countries with alarming and severe GHI scores, the average farm size is less than five hectares, or about 12 acres. </p>
<p>Small farms dominate South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where the hunger index scores are highest. These farms <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/12/124010">currently produce</a> 41 percent of global calories from croplands, and the majority of crops that are essential for food security in many regions, including rice, cassava, groundnuts and millet. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149132/original/image-20161207-18046-1awneys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149132/original/image-20161207-18046-1awneys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149132/original/image-20161207-18046-1awneys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149132/original/image-20161207-18046-1awneys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149132/original/image-20161207-18046-1awneys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149132/original/image-20161207-18046-1awneys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149132/original/image-20161207-18046-1awneys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Average farm sizes in regions of the world dominated by small farmers. One hectare is about 2.5 acres.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/11/12/124010/downloadHRFigure/figure/erlaa496ef1">Leah H. Samberg</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So why is hunger prevalent in these same areas? The problem is that <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2296">yield trends</a> for the world’s major staple grains – wheat, rice and maize – have stagnated throughout developing regions.</p>
<p>To address <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v490/n7419/abs/nature11420.html">yield gaps</a> – the difference between the amount of food that land is producing and the amount it is capable of producing – we need to quantify them. <a href="http://www.earthstat.org">EarthStat</a>, a joint project of the GLI and the University of British Columbia’s <a href="http://www.ramankuttylab.com/">Ramankutty Lab</a>, provides global maps of yield gaps for 16 major crops that account for about 85 percent of all calories produced on croplands. Other valuable resources include the <a href="http://www.yieldgap.org">Global Yield Gap Atlas</a> and IFPRI’s <a href="https://www.ifpri.org/publication/cell5m-geospatial-data-and-analytics-platform-harmonized-multi-disciplinary-data-layers">CELL5M</a> database. </p>
<p>These global tools are useful for targeting policy and investments for broad strategies. But they need to be adapted for local issues, such as increasing access to seeds, fertilizer and markets. </p>
<h2>Increasing yields and protecting the environment</h2>
<p>Many institutions working with smallholder farmers have shown it is possible to increase yields and also make production more sustainable and profitable. For example, they have promoted direct seeding in rice fields rather than transplanting nursery-grown sprouts. This practice reduces labor costs and decreases the time required for plants to mature. </p>
<p>Another strategy, modified rice intensification, uses improved mechanization to transplant younger seedlings and use less water. A third strategy is to occasionally dry out rice fields, which reduces water use and increases availability of soil nutrients. These methods, which <a href="https://ccafs.cgiar.org/blog/growing-rice-less-water-case-studies-india#.Ve7wfrTipXo">increase yields with less water use and labor</a>, are becoming widely adopted in India and can be used in other rice-growing regions. </p>
<p>Creating change across millions of farms requires tremendous time investments to understand farmers’ needs and challenges and to gain their trust. There is currently no Silicon Valley-style approach to quickly “hack” food production on small farms. </p>
<p>But more gradual approaches can be very effective. The nonprofit <a href="https://www.oneacrefund.org/">One Acre Fund</a> has helped over 400,000 farmers across six countries in Africa <a href="https://www.oneacrefund.org/results/country-detail#sec-970_443_1_0">increase farm income by 55 percent</a> by improving their access to credit for seeds and fertilizer and training them in farming techniques.</p>
<h2>Key leverage points</h2>
<p>We can achieve food security and also promote sustainable agriculture by focusing on a small set of <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/345/6194/325">leverage points</a> in the global food system. The two highest-payoff strategies are halting deforestation and changing irrigation management in rice paddies. </p>
<p>Agriculture expansion is the leading global driver of tropical deforestation, which has tremendous impacts on biodiversity and accounts for about 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Every unit of tropical land cleared <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1011078107">leads to nearly twice the carbon loss and produces half as much food</a> as a comparable unit in temperate zones. The stark trade-off occurs because lush tropical forests store lots of carbon and the yields gaps are commonly high. This means that increasing yields on existing tropical farmlands is much better for the environment than clearing new land for agriculture. </p>
<p>Many agriculture and development experts believe Africa is overdue for a Green Revolution, similar to the focused research and investments that produced <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/09/a-green-revolution-this-time-for-africa/?_r=0">dramatic yield increases in Asia and Latin America</a> in the 1960s and 1970s. But agricultural expansion <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/111/38/13799.short">will likely be part</a> of such an effort in Africa. </p>
<p>This will occur partly to produce more staple crops like cassava and sorghum. Currently, however, global markets for cash commodities like sugarcane are driving land grabs, reducing available farmland and using <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/113/41/11471.abstract">much more water than staple crops</a>. Many institutions are working to improve seed varieties and soil management techniques to improve yields of staple crops, but these investments are small compared to the money going toward production of cash commodities.</p>
<p>Better irrigation management on rice farms is especially important in Asia, where rice is the main source of calories for many people. Growing it in flooded paddies <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3158">produces large quantities of methane</a>, a powerful greenhouse gas. Approaches such as the techniques mentioned above can maintain or improve yields and reduce water consumption, and even small changes can produce large reductions in overall GHG emissions without reducing rice production.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151868/original/image-20170105-18668-nx5ksp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151868/original/image-20170105-18668-nx5ksp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151868/original/image-20170105-18668-nx5ksp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151868/original/image-20170105-18668-nx5ksp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151868/original/image-20170105-18668-nx5ksp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151868/original/image-20170105-18668-nx5ksp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151868/original/image-20170105-18668-nx5ksp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Farmers plant rice in a paddy field in Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ifpri/21074362321/in/album-72157671040480643/">IFPRI/IanMasias via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Beyond the farm</h2>
<p>Sustainably increasing food production is an important piece of the puzzle, but it does not necessarily ensure that people will have constant access to food or will be well-nourished. As one example, studies have shown that farm households are more likely to have enough food to feed their families if they earn <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1518384112">off-farm income</a> in addition to raising crops. </p>
<p>An international group of food and nutrition scholars proposed a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/540030a">new research agenda</a> in late 2016 that shifts the emphasis from calories – that is, feeding people – to nourishment. In their view, we need to organize an international effort as large as global campaigns against HIV/AIDs or smoking to remake global food systems so that healthy diets are available to everyone.</p>
<p>It would be overly optimistic to say that eliminating hunger is within reach, but we have the knowledge and tools to achieve this goal. The biggest breakthroughs likely will come through integrated strategies for producing and increasing access to nutritious food.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67287/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul West and his research team receive funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>How can we feed a growing world population while protecting the environment? One key strategy is to improve yields on small farms, which produce much of the food in the world’s hungriest countries.Paul West, Co-Director and Lead Scientist of the Global Landscapes Initiative, Institute on the Environment, University of MinnesotaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/580622017-01-08T19:21:37Z2017-01-08T19:21:37ZFood for thought: the rise of Australia’s mighty Brahman<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150639/original/image-20161219-26097-1djdz8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Brahman cattle in northern Australia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">CSIRO</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The cattle in northern Australia are different to the rest of the national herd and the most striking thing is they have humps. But these humped Brahman cattle are here for a reason: because they adapted to surviving where others cannot in harsh tropical environments.</p>
<p>Brahmans were first introduced to Queensland in 1933. Today the national beef herd is around <a href="http://www.mla.com.au/prices-markets/Trends-analysis/cattle-projections/">26 million cattle</a> and Brahman genetics can be found in <a href="http://www.brahman.com.au/wbc_welcome.html">around 50% of the national herd</a>. More than 70% of the bulls working north of the Tropic of Capricorn are Brahman.</p>
<p>Such has been their impact that, before you can leave Ausralia’s beef capital of Rockhampton, you are greeted with a giant statue of a Brahman bull, a tribute to the immense economic benefits it has delivered. In 2001 it was estimated that Brahman genetics had contributed an extra A$8.1 billion to the Queensland economy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150640/original/image-20161219-26116-1jp1hxk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150640/original/image-20161219-26116-1jp1hxk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150640/original/image-20161219-26116-1jp1hxk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150640/original/image-20161219-26116-1jp1hxk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150640/original/image-20161219-26116-1jp1hxk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150640/original/image-20161219-26116-1jp1hxk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150640/original/image-20161219-26116-1jp1hxk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150640/original/image-20161219-26116-1jp1hxk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Brahman cattle statue in Rockhampton.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Thomson</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But its impact has been far greater than just dollars and cents. With the benefit of hindsight, we can now see that the great experiment of introducing these bloodlines into Australia laid down the ideal model of research and industry collaboration that all fields of science can still learn from today.</p>
<p>Like all great advances in human endeavour, it began with an insight, followed by a vision and then years of unrecognised and thankless toil. </p>
<h2>Inspiration from Texas</h2>
<p>In the 1920 the Australian veterinary scientist <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gilruth-john-anderson-6393">John Anderson Gilruth</a> toured the United States and viewed the cattle at the Pierce Estate in Texas. According to Angus Packham’s book of <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/22225335?selectedversion=NBD24379409">Cattle Breeding Research at Rockhampton</a>, Gilruth said that “a vigorously controlled cattle breeding experiment in north Queensland would be wise”.</p>
<p>Gilruth later became the first chief of the new division of animal health at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR was the precursor to today’s CSIRO). There, he put forward a proposal to acquire <a href="http://www.thecattlesite.com/breeds/beef/76/zebu/">Zebu cattle</a> (Brahmans are a sub-breed of the Zebu species of cattle).</p>
<p>Wise indeed, but it took until 1933 for the first Zebus to be imported by CSIR on behalf of a handful of cooperating progressive pastoralists, even though most cattlemen did not see value in these humped “feral” cattle of inferior genetics.</p>
<p>The CSIR’s animal geneticist <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kelley-ralph-bodkin-10671">Ralph Bodkin Kelley</a> said at the time:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A cooperator refused to use a CSIR-installed cattle weigh-bridge and another stated that nobody was going to tell him how to breed cattle that were his.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Even then it wasn’t until 1941 that Kelly was able to record that “the most worthwhile experiment with respect to Zebu crossbreeding in Australia” had begun. It was another decade before the property Belmont, north of Rockhampton, was purchased as a dedicated research property for cattle research.</p>
<p>Every scientist with a grand vision would appreciate these long thankless years. In fact, the <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/22225335?selectedversion=NBD24379409">CSIR Executive Board questioned:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] whether anybody is cognisant of the very large number of major and minor difficulties and problems, of husbandry and science, which will have to be overcome or solved on the ground before Belmont can become the centre of a beef cattle research programme of which CSIR can be proud.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Thankfully, things reached a tipping point, and this is where things get really interesting for designing future research collaborations. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129798/original/image-20160708-30680-1vrgk3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129798/original/image-20160708-30680-1vrgk3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129798/original/image-20160708-30680-1vrgk3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129798/original/image-20160708-30680-1vrgk3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129798/original/image-20160708-30680-1vrgk3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129798/original/image-20160708-30680-1vrgk3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129798/original/image-20160708-30680-1vrgk3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129798/original/image-20160708-30680-1vrgk3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Brahman cattle dominate the northern Australian herd.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CSIRO</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Queensland herd</h2>
<p>In 1965 less than 15% of the Queensland cattle herd contained Brahman genetics. By 1981 it was 60%.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129796/original/image-20160708-30685-s8cgda.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129796/original/image-20160708-30685-s8cgda.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129796/original/image-20160708-30685-s8cgda.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129796/original/image-20160708-30685-s8cgda.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129796/original/image-20160708-30685-s8cgda.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129796/original/image-20160708-30685-s8cgda.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129796/original/image-20160708-30685-s8cgda.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129796/original/image-20160708-30685-s8cgda.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That rise coincided directly with a rise in industry visitors to CSIRO’s research facilities at Belmont, which coincidentally or not, tracks a similar rise in the number of scientific papers published by the researchers. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129797/original/image-20160708-30670-1qus1ti.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129797/original/image-20160708-30670-1qus1ti.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129797/original/image-20160708-30670-1qus1ti.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129797/original/image-20160708-30670-1qus1ti.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129797/original/image-20160708-30670-1qus1ti.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129797/original/image-20160708-30670-1qus1ti.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129797/original/image-20160708-30670-1qus1ti.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129797/original/image-20160708-30670-1qus1ti.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Strong links with industry reflected by official visitor numbers appears to have been vital in maintaining research momentum, helping to frame industry-relevant research questions and driving adoption of innovation by Queensland cattlemen.</p>
<p>Alas, amid government funding cuts and rationalisation of research activities, the CSIRO left Rockhampton in 2009. It consolidated its northern livestock program to Townsville, leaving the beef capital without a research presence.</p>
<p>The once crowded Rendel Research Laboratories were emptied, Belmont’s pastures were used by private herds, and producers started looking elsewhere for inspiration. </p>
<h2>A new approach</h2>
<p>Despite the successes of the Brahman breed, the challenge facing the north Australian industry remains the same: identifying superior genetics that can thrive in harsh and remote environmental conditions with limited human intervention.</p>
<p>Case in point being the abysmally low fertility rates in some northern Australian herds, where <a href="http://www.mla.com.au/research-and-development/search-rd-reports/final-report-details/productivity-on-farm/northern-australian-beef-fertility-project-cashcow/370">47% calving rates</a> are normal, compared with the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/lookup/4630.0main+features72011-12">national average of 76%</a>. </p>
<p>Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) <a href="http://www.mla.com.au/research-and-development/search-rd-reports/final-report-details/Productivity-On-Farm/The-Northern-beef-report-2013-Northern-beef-situation-analysis/234">research</a> also shows that the 25% of producers in the northern region (i.e. those operating profitably) are acutely focused on their genetics, their pastures and their labour efficiency. They achieve higher reproductive rates, lower mortality rates and heavier sale weights than the rest of the producers. </p>
<p>So the focus now is on engaging producers in the development of new automated monitoring systems to identify new genetics that will take the industry to the next level of productivity.</p>
<p>Systems have been developed that are capable of gathering data on individual animals and Belmont (now owned by farmer association AgForce) is again the touch point for industry. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150645/original/image-20161219-16735-1jhchph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150645/original/image-20161219-16735-1jhchph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150645/original/image-20161219-16735-1jhchph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150645/original/image-20161219-16735-1jhchph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150645/original/image-20161219-16735-1jhchph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150645/original/image-20161219-16735-1jhchph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150645/original/image-20161219-16735-1jhchph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150645/original/image-20161219-16735-1jhchph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A stockman musters cattle on CSIRO’S Belmont research station, 32km north of Rockhampton.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.scienceimage.csiro.au/image/11010/a-stockman-musters-cattle-on-csiro-s-belmont-research-station-in-central-queensland/">CSIRO</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This allows our researchers to track in real time which cattle are reaching optimal markets weights the fastest, and which cows are most fertile, as well as the pasture and water availability.</p>
<p>If this sort of technology is rolled out across the industry, the data gathered will dramatically enhance analysis of industry-wide genetic linkages. Producers will be able to more accurately select from a larger number of bulls and cows which have detailed fertility records, and whose progeny will grow faster than their ancestors while consuming less pasture.</p>
<p>For the producer this means more beef produced per hectare, bolstering their bottom line and the nation’s export returns. For the consumer it means industry can select genetics that are known to produce tender beef. And for the environment it will reduce the amount of grazing pressure on ground cover and waterways.</p>
<p>But this will all remain just a scientist’s crusade if producers can’t see the value in adopting new innovation. The key to that riddle is once again opening the doors to Rockhampton’s beef research facilities and recreating that strong link between researchers and producers that proved so successful in the past.</p>
<p>The challenge for governments and the research community is to understand the value of investing for the long-term, riding out the dark and lonely days and the importance of engaging with end-users along the way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58062/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dave Swain receives funding from Meat and Livestock Australia and works for CQUniversity, he is a member of the North Australian Beef Research Council. </span></em></p>The humped Brahman cattle are now a regular sight across northern Australia, but it was a challenge to get them accepted by producers.Dave Swain, Professor of Agriculture, CQUniversity AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/596342016-06-09T14:42:32Z2016-06-09T14:42:32ZThe next ‘green revolution’ should focus on hunger – not profit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125718/original/image-20160608-3516-1eg0dei.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=84%2C446%2C5319%2C2768&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">avemario / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The “<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=frNfVx-KZOcC&pg=PA1&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">green revolution</a>” of the 1960s delivered vast increases in food production, averting famines and political instability across the world. There are now urgent appeals for a <a href="http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/2015-report.html">second green revolution</a> to make food more sustainable, involving climate-adapted crops (some genetically-modified), healthier soil and reduced chemical inputs. Sadly, incentives on offer for agri-tech firms mean our hopes of achieving such a revolution are under grave threat.</p>
<p>As was the case 50 years ago, those who grow our food are tasked with growing healthy plants in the face of drought, lack of nutrients, pests, and diseases. But this is where the similarity ends. In 2016, climate change is already hitting home, wreaking havoc with <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/341/6145/508.full.pdf+html">patterns of weather</a> and <a href="http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/content/60/10/2827">disease</a>. Furthermore, <a href="http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/2015-report.html">ten billion people</a> will need feeding by 2050, requiring us to produce as much food between now and then as has been produced in the <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/world-hunger-50-years-food-history/story?id=8736358">whole of human history</a>. </p>
<p>This isn’t just a technical problem for agricultural scientists. Alongside the challenge of supplying adequate calories in ever harsher environments, we must also tackle some deep-rooted obstacles to a fair and safe food supply.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125915/original/image-20160609-7074-wer8x5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125915/original/image-20160609-7074-wer8x5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125915/original/image-20160609-7074-wer8x5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125915/original/image-20160609-7074-wer8x5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125915/original/image-20160609-7074-wer8x5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125915/original/image-20160609-7074-wer8x5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125915/original/image-20160609-7074-wer8x5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125915/original/image-20160609-7074-wer8x5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">High-yielding wheat developed at government research institutes in the 1950s and 60s by Nobel-winner Norman Borlaug was distributed across the world – in particular famine-stricken India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://blog.cimmyt.org/from-east-asia-to-south-asia-via-mexico-how-one-gene-changed-the-course-of-history/">CIMMYT</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The economic landscape of agricultural research is radically different to that which enabled the first green revolution. Today, it is overwhelmingly driven by an international private sector, whereas in the past government-funded institutes would develop and distribute better crops and farming techniques. </p>
<p>This shift away from state-funded research poses significant risks when government regulation threatens profits, as evidenced by the recent debate over the re-licencing of the herbicide glyphosate. The argument here should be about the trade-off between the weed-killing benefits of a chemical versus possible negative effects on <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045%2815%2970134-8/abstract">human health</a> and the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929139313001923">environment</a>. However, the profitability of glyphosate-containing herbicides and glyphosate-tolerant crop plants is dependent upon its legality. As a result, conflicts of interest between profits and safety are the true drivers of such controversies, leading to <a href="http://lobbyfacts.eu/">industrial-scale lobbying</a> by agri-tech which undermines the potential for EU regulators to make a balanced decision.</p>
<p>Of equal concern is the <a href="https://www.oecd.org/sti/sci-tech/24508541.pdf">rampant patenting of the biological resources</a> which underlie our food systems. As we obtain more and more information from crop genomes, the scientific process of sharing one’s research should facilitate huge improvements in crop production around the world. Instead, each additional level of biological information has provided a further opportunity for these crops to become ever more exclusive, based on the ability to pay for access rather than a requirement.</p>
<p>The profitability of patents is also distorting the priorities of agri-tech and research institutes. For instance, engineering so-called “resistance” genes into a crop suffering from a microbial disease is a <a href="http://www.google.com/patents/WO2003000906A2?cl=en">readily patentable process</a>. In addition, once a microbe evolves to overcome the resistance gene, the farmer must then purchase a different variety which has been genetically engineered with the next line of defence. Both of these factors have the potential to push research away from a more multi-layered approach to crop protection and more towards those “innovations” which can be licenced for profit.</p>
<p>Finally, the idea in most privatised sectors is that competition between different companies promotes innovation and maintains fair prices for consumers. This simply isn’t the case in agri-tech. At present, just <a href="http://www.etcgroup.org/sites/www.etcgroup.org/files/files/etc_breakbad_23dec15.pdf">three companies</a> own a staggering 51% of the world’s agri-chemicals and 55% of the world’s commercial seed varieties. This situation is only worsening, as these <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/may/05/monsanto-dow-syngenta-rush-for-mega-mergers-puts-food-security-at-risk">companies seek mergers</a> to consolidate their market share and increase investment potential. </p>
<p>Such concentration of power over the price and distribution of products is rarely tolerated in other industries, and it is particularly worrying to see such a monopoly over our means to grow food. If access to the knowledge gained during the second green revolution is to be shaped by market forces, we should at least ensure that this is a market with competition.</p>
<p>It should be possible to avert a global food crisis, but we must start by <a href="https://theconversation.com/royal-society-president-gm-crops-feed-much-of-the-world-today-why-not-tomorrows-generations-59715">reframing the debate</a>. Most public discussion of food security is dominated by an anti-science lobby that is <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/may/27/gm-crops-food-security-calestous-juma-africa">highly sceptical</a> about the safety of GM-technology, when all GM crops really represent is a small part of a complex solution. </p>
<p>The deeper issue lies in the ownership of the technology we need to grow food, and the way that science and intellectual property have been misappropriated. We require nothing less than a total <a href="http://osseeds.org/faqs/">restructuring</a> of the global agri-tech sector – only then can we ensure billions more people can sustainably feed themselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59634/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Will Buswell receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust, a charitable trust which provides grants and scholarships for research and education.</span></em></p>Ensuring the next 10 billion people are fed fairly will require a radical restructuring of global agri-tech.Will, PhD Student in Plant Immunity, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/595642016-06-03T01:02:21Z2016-06-03T01:02:21ZMoving beyond pro/con debates over genetically engineered crops<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124694/original/image-20160601-1425-1v3ghax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Field tests of flood-tolerant 'scuba rice.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ricephotos/9203724733/in/photolist-afTW1Z-f2iuHc-73nSmq-77bi3g-bAzz6P-dbSJ5C-9y4Bmy-uv8LUu">International Rice Research Institute/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the 1980s biologists have used genetic engineering to express novel traits in crop plants. Over the last 20 years, these crops have been grown on more than one billion acres in the United States and globally. Despite their rapid adoption by farmers, genetically engineered (GE) crops remain controversial among many consumers, who have sometimes found it hard to obtain accurate information. </p>
<p>Last month the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a <a href="https://nas-sites.org/ge-crops/">review</a> of 20 years of data regarding GE crops. The report largely confirms findings from <a href="https://nas-sites.org/ge-crops/2014/06/05/related-reports/">previous National Academies reports</a> and reviews produced by other major scientific organizations around the world, including the <a href="http://www.who.int/foodsafety/areas_work/food-technology/faq-genetically-modified-food/en/">World Health Organization</a> and the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/research/biosociety/pdf/a_decade_of_eu-funded_gmo_research.pdf">European Commission</a>. </p>
<p>I direct a <a href="http://www.cropgeneticsinnovation.org/">laboratory</a> that studies rice, a staple food crop for half the world’s people. Researchers in my lab are identifying genes that control tolerance to environmental stress and resistance to disease. We use genetic engineering and other genetic methods to understand gene function. </p>
<p>I strongly agree with the NAS report that each crop, whether bred conventionally or developed through genetic engineering, should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Every crop is different, each trait is different and the needs of each farmer are different too. More progress in crop improvement can be made by using both conventional breeding and genetic engineering than using either approach alone.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124704/original/image-20160601-1955-1afxcez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124704/original/image-20160601-1955-1afxcez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124704/original/image-20160601-1955-1afxcez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124704/original/image-20160601-1955-1afxcez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124704/original/image-20160601-1955-1afxcez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124704/original/image-20160601-1955-1afxcez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124704/original/image-20160601-1955-1afxcez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Modern cultivated corn was domesticated from teosinte, an ancient grass, over more than 6,000 years through conventional breeding.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_images.jsp?cntn_id=104207&org=NSF">Nicole Rager Fuller, National Science Foundation</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Convergence between biotech and conventional breeding</h2>
<p>New molecular tools are blurring the distinction between genetic improvements made with conventional breeding and those made with modern genetic methods. One example is marker assisted breeding, in which geneticists identify genes or chromosomal regions associated with traits desired by farmers and/or consumers. Researchers then look for particular markers (patterns) in a plant’s DNA that are associated with these genes. Using these genetic markers, they can efficiently identify plants carrying the desired genetic fingerprints and eliminate plants with undesirable genetics. </p>
<p>Ten years ago my collaborators and I isolated <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature04920">a gene, called Sub1</a>, that controls tolerance to flooding. Million of rice farmers in South and Southeast Asia grow rice in flood prone regions, so this trait is extremely valuable. Most varieties of rice will die after three days of complete submergence but plants with the Sub1 gene can withstand two weeks of complete submergence. Last year, nearly five million farmers grew Sub1 rice varieties developed by my collaborators at the <a href="http://irri.org/">International Rice Research Institute</a> using marker assisted breeding.</p>
<p>In another example, researchers identified genetic variants that are associated with hornlessness (referred to as “polled”) in cattle – a trait that is common in beef breeds but rare in dairy breeds. Farmers routinely dehorn dairy cattle to protect their handlers and prevent the animals from harming each other. Because this process is painful and frightening for the animals, <a href="https://www.avma.org/KB/Policies/Pages/Castration-and-Dehorning-of-Cattle.aspx">veterinary experts</a> have called for research into alternative options.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nbt.3560">study</a> published last month, scientists used genome editing and reproductive cloning to produce dairy cows that carried a naturally occurring mutation for hornlessness. This approach has the potential to improve the welfare of millions of cattle each year.</p>
<h2>Reducing chemical insecticides and enhancing yield</h2>
<p>In assessing how GE crops affect crop productivity, human health and the environment, the NAS study primarily focused on two traits that have been engineered into plants: resistance to insect pests and tolerance of herbicides. </p>
<p>The study found that farmers who planted crops engineered to contain the insect-resistant trait – based on genes from the bacterium <em>Bacillus thuringiensis</em>, or Bt – generally experienced fewer losses and applied fewer chemical insecticide sprays than farmers who planted non-Bt varieties. It also concluded that farms where Bt crops were planted had more insect biodiversity than farms where growers used broad-spectrum insecticides on conventional crops. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124852/original/image-20160601-1943-fpfb7g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124852/original/image-20160601-1943-fpfb7g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124852/original/image-20160601-1943-fpfb7g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124852/original/image-20160601-1943-fpfb7g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124852/original/image-20160601-1943-fpfb7g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124852/original/image-20160601-1943-fpfb7g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124852/original/image-20160601-1943-fpfb7g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Genetically modified crops currently grown in the United States (IR=insect resistant, HT=herbicide tolerant, DT=drought tolerant, VR=virus resistant).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/agriculture/genetically-modified-gm-crops-techniques-and-applications-0-710/">Colorado State University Extension</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The committee found that herbicide-resistant (HR) crops contribute to greater yields because weeds can be controlled more easily. For example, farmers that planted HR canola reaped greater yields and returns, which led to wide adoption of this crop variety. </p>
<p>Another benefit of planting of HR crops is reduced tillage – the process of turning the soil. Before planting, farmers must kill the weeds in their fields. Before the advent of herbicides and HR crops, farmers controlled weeds by tilling. However, tilling causes erosion and runoff, and requires energy to fuel the tractors. Many farmers prefer reduced tillage practices because they enhance sustainable management. With HR crops, farmers can control weeds effectively without tilling. </p>
<p>The committee noted a clear association between the planting of HR crops and reduced-till agricultural practices over the last two decades. However, it is unclear if the adoption of HR crops resulted in decisions by farmers to use conservation tillage, or if farmers who were using conservation tillage adopted HR crops more readily.</p>
<p>In areas where planting of HR crops led to heavy reliance on the herbicide glyphosate, some weeds evolved resistance to the herbicide, making it difficult for farmers to control weeds using this herbicide. The NAS report concluded that sustainable use of Bt and HR crops will require use of <a href="https://www.epa.gov/managing-pests-schools/introduction-integrated-pest-management">integrated pest management strategies</a>. </p>
<p>The report also discusses seven other GE food crops grown in 2015, including apple (<em>Malus domestica</em>), canola (<em>Brassica napus</em>), sugar beet (<em>Beta vulgaris</em>), papaya (<em>Carica papaya</em>), potato, squash (<em>Cucurbita pepo</em>) and eggplant (<em>Solanum melongena</em>). </p>
<p>Papaya is a particularly important example. In the 1950s, papaya ringspot virus wiped out nearly all papaya production on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. As the virus spread to other islands, many farmers feared that it would wipe out the Hawaiian papaya crop. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124854/original/image-20160601-1425-wyxz7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124854/original/image-20160601-1425-wyxz7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124854/original/image-20160601-1425-wyxz7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124854/original/image-20160601-1425-wyxz7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124854/original/image-20160601-1425-wyxz7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124854/original/image-20160601-1425-wyxz7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124854/original/image-20160601-1425-wyxz7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Papaya infected with ringspot virus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/scotnelson/5681077107/in/photolist-9E4VGu-r5tSJK-9E22DT-pcrCVd-peSWEi-9TvjyV-9E21ii-9TyaqA-9TvjKa-9E21oR-9E4V9L-nebFBZ-og5rNM-nebYHJ-pfWd1W-FL2ujx-9E21uD-9E4VZA-9TvjGF-yVpSFH-9E4UDh-9E4UwS-9E4UKm-FEasxn-9TvjJg-qnSQFu-Ai8Lnm-9E22tv-9E4UTy-9E219a-9E4UZY-wpcb1n-wYHSbx-A2HwF9-Ah2E6L-vHM2mi-vZCYc5-zpBqR5-A54833-qRJN5f-syUv1x-shmYZN-swD3Bs-9E4TVo-znTbzD-cNNCAS-D9UBYa-oxEBJF-ovGKvm-w267Pq">Scot Nelson/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1998 Hawaiian plant pathologist <a href="http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/sections/news/local-news/papaya-gmo-success-story.html">Dennis Gonsalves</a> used genetic engineering to splice a small snippet of ringspot virus DNA into the papaya genome. The resulting genetically engineered papaya trees were immune to infection and produced 10-20 fold more fruit than infected crops. Dennis’ pioneering work <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/20/science/stalked-by-deadly-virus-papaya-lives-to-breed-again.html?pagewanted=all">rescued the papaya industry</a>. Twenty years later, this is still the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1094/PHI-I-2010-1004-01">only method</a> for controlling papaya ringspot virus. Today, despite <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/us/on-hawaii-a-lonely-quest-for-facts-about-gmos.html?_r=0">protests by some consumers</a>, 80 percent of the Hawaiian papaya crop is genetically engineered. </p>
<p>Scientists have also used genetic engineering to combat a pest called the fruit and shoot borer, which preys on eggplant in Asia. Farmers in Bangladesh often spray insecticides every 2-3 days, and sometimes as often as twice daily, to control it. The World Health Organization <a href="http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/en/PesticidesHealth2.pdf">estimates</a> that some three million cases of pesticide poisoning and over than 250,000 deaths occur worldwide every year. </p>
<p>To reduce chemical sprays on eggplant, scientists at Cornell University and in Bangladesh engineered Bt into the eggplant genome. Bt <em>brinjal</em> (eggplant) was introduced in Bangladesh in 2013. Last year <a href="http://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/bt-brinjal-beyond-boundaries">108 Bangladeshi farmers grew it</a> and were able to drastically reduce insecticides sprays. </p>
<h2>Feed the world in an ecologically based manner</h2>
<p>Genetically improved crops have benefited many farmers, but it is clear that genetic improvement alone cannot address the wide variety of complex challenges that farmers face. Ecologically based farming approaches as well as infrastructure and appropriate policies are also needed. </p>
<p>Instead of worrying about the genes in our food, we need to focus on ways to help families, farmers and rural communities thrive. We must be sure that everyone can afford the food and we must minimize environmental degradation. I hope that the NAS report can help move the discussions beyond distracting pro/con arguments about GE crops and refocus them on using every appropriate technology to feed the world in an ecologically based manner.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59564/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pamela Ronald is a professor in the dept of Plant Pathology and the Genome Center at UC Davis. She also serves as Director of Grass Genetics at the Joint Bioenergy Institute. She serves on the scientific advisory board of the non profit Boyce Thompson institute and the non profit Donald Danforth Center. She lectures widely and occasionally receives speaking fees. Her speaking schedule is listed here: <a href="http://www.cropgeneticsinnovation.org/speaking-schedule-and-recent-apeearances/">http://www.cropgeneticsinnovation.org/speaking-schedule-and-recent-apeearances/</a>. She is coauthor of "Tomorrows Table: Organic Farming, Genetics and the Future of Food. Twenty years ago she received research funding from Monsanto to study the genetic basis of disease resistance in rice.</span></em></p>Advocates have argued for years about whether genetically engineered crops are safe to grow and eat. Plant pathologist and geneticist Pamela Ronald calls for a more nuanced discussion.Pamela Ronald, Professor of Plant Pathology, University of California, DavisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/488952015-10-25T19:13:24Z2015-10-25T19:13:24ZWe need to stop Australia’s genetic heritage from being taken overseas<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99281/original/image-20151022-8031-qx2a0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">_Nicotiana benthamiana_ growing in the wild in coastal northern Western Australia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Steve Wylie</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In August this year <a href="http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/research-data/science-directory/people/chase-mark-w">Professor Mark Chase</a> from the <a href="http://www.kew.org/">Royal Botanical Gardens</a> at Kew, west of London, flew into Perth in Western Australia, hired a 4WD vehicle and drove north.</p>
<p>After clocking up 9,000km he told me he had collected seed from thousands of plants of nine species and subspecies belonging to one genus. This genetic resource is now catalogued and stored in England. He had done the same in South Australia in 2014 and plans to repeat the exercise in WA in 2016. </p>
<p>Let’s be clear upfront. Chase is no <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/508502">bio-pirate</a>, he’s a respected professor and everything he did was perfectly legal and above board.</p>
<p>So what’s the problem?</p>
<h2>A brief history of rubber</h2>
<p>Consider rubber. In the 1800s there was a rubber boom. Rubber trees are indigenous to the Amazon basin and Brazil was making a fortune.</p>
<p>In 1876 Kew Gardens commissioned <a href="http://westernfarmpress.com/blog/when-rubber-ruled-world">Henry Wickham</a> to steal rubber tree seeds. They were planted in the British colonies of Ceylon and Malaya forming the basis of a successful industry for the then British Empire. Brazil’s rubber boom ended.</p>
<p>Back to present-day Australia. The plants collected by our visiting professor all belong to Western Australian native members of the genus <em><a href="https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/browse/profile/22036">Nicotiana</a></em>, a cousin of tobacco, potato, tomato, eggplant and capsicum. The name looks familiar because of nicotine, a psychoactive alkaloid of tobacco, <em>Nicotiana tabacum</em>, which is native to the Americas. The Spanish took it to Europe in the 1500s. Shipping <em>Nicotiana</em> seeds between continents has a long history. </p>
<p>For thousands of years Australian Aboriginal peoples have used <em>Nicotiana</em> in religious practice, for medicinal purposes and recreationally. Near the end of August in 1770, Joseph Banks was aboard James Cook’s ship Endeavour observing the local people who lived on the northern coast of Australia. He <a href="http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0501141h.html#aug1770">wrote</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We observd that some tho but few held constantly in their mouths the leaves of an herb which they chewd as a European does tobacca […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They were almost certainly chewing <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1746-4269-6-26">Pituri</a>, made from dried <em>Nicotiana</em> leaves rolled in ash. The alkalinity of the ash releases nicotine. Native tobacco is still of cultural significance to groups of indigenous Australians.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99282/original/image-20151022-8006-1asmj7i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99282/original/image-20151022-8006-1asmj7i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99282/original/image-20151022-8006-1asmj7i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99282/original/image-20151022-8006-1asmj7i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99282/original/image-20151022-8006-1asmj7i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99282/original/image-20151022-8006-1asmj7i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99282/original/image-20151022-8006-1asmj7i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99282/original/image-20151022-8006-1asmj7i.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"><em>Nicotiana benthamiana</em> (left) from the Northern Territory and the same species (right) from northern Western Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Steve Wylie</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Interest from overseas</h2>
<p>The Kew professor is not the first foreign scientist to come to Australia collecting <em>Nicotiana</em>. Illustrations of Australian <em>Nicotiana</em> plants in a series of <a href="http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/efsa/lucid/Solanaceae/Nicotiana%20species/key/Australian%20Nicotiana%20species/Media/Html/index.htm#N">Fact Sheets</a> by the South Australian herbarium borrow heavily from The Genus Nicotiana Illustrated, a book published by Japan Tobacco in 1994. </p>
<p>Why the international interest in Australian <em>Nicotiana</em> species? Our English professor said his interest lay in clarifying the taxonomic status of the Australian members of the genus. But detailed <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/SB11006">taxonomic studies</a> have already been done at the University of Melbourne: so collections of thousands of plants are not required for this purpose. </p>
<p><a href="http://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/abs/10.1094/MPMI-21-8-1015"><em>Nicotiana benthamiana</em></a> is Australia’s most scientifically famous native plant, grown in labs around the world. It grows naturally across northern WA.</p>
<p>Its immense value to science lies in two inter-related properties. It’s extraordinarily susceptible to plant pathogens and so has been invaluable in helping understand how to control diseases in crops.</p>
<p>It also has the unusual ability to express proteins of many foreign genes – this made it the species of choice for GlaxoSmithKline when developing an experimental <a href="http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v32/n9/full/nbt0914-849a.html">Ebola virus vaccine</a> in response to the 2014 outbreak in Africa. The world has already benefited from <em>Nicotiana benthamiana</em> in many ways.</p>
<h2>Crops of the future</h2>
<p>A worldwide race is underway to develop tough new crops able to withstand the drought, heat and disease coming with climate change. Kew Gardens publishes a <a href="http://www.kew.org/discover/blogs/kew-science/crop-wild-relatives-creating-guides-seed-collectors">guide</a> for bio-prospectors to collect seed from wild plants for their <a href="http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/research-data/science-directory/projects/adapting-agriculture-climate-change">Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change</a> project.</p>
<p>Australian <em>Nicotiana</em> species from arid zones have evolved a suite of genetic tricks to cope with the notoriously unpredictable rainfall and severe heat. They live in small, scattered populations of favourable habitat, isolated from other populations by inhospitable dry rocks and sands.</p>
<p>Over time, nature has experimented with these isolated populations, tested new ways to survive. Our research at Murdoch University has already shown that each distinct population exhibits markedly different responses to drought and <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0121787">virus attack</a>. </p>
<p>Our Kew professor is attempting to sample all the genetic variety present within each Australian <em>Nicotiana</em> population so that the best genes from them may one day be selected for agriculture, or perhaps other uses. Stress tolerance genes that evolved in the deserts of Australia could one day protect fields of wheat, maize, potatoes and other crops so fundamental to our survival.</p>
<p>So where is the problem? We might applaud the noble quest of agricultural scientists to save the world from famine, irrespective of their geographical location. </p>
<h2>Australia’s rich resource</h2>
<p>The problem is the means by which this outcome will be achieved. Australia’s scientists should be mining Australia’s gene bank, and all Australians should benefit from the rewards of this intellectual property (<a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/intellectual-property">IP</a>).</p>
<p>International collaboration is the lifeblood of scientific advancement, but so is competition and protecting IP. When Australia’s genetic heritage is lodged in other countries, we have lost control of our IP.</p>
<p>Most of Australia’s mineral heritage has been sold cheaply as unprocessed ore. Our international customers increase its value many-fold through innovative manufacturing. Then we buy it back. </p>
<p>Should we follow the same path with our genetic heritage so that one day Australian farmers will be forced to buy from overseas agricultural companies new drought-tolerant crop varieties sporting Australian genes? Or should we build genetic IP in Australia for the sustainable benefit of Australians?</p>
<p>But the collection and export of Australian native genetic resources remains completely legal. The Kew professor obtained a state government <a href="http://www.dpaw.wa.gov.au/plants-and-animals/licences-and-permits/135-flora-licences">Flora license</a> permitting seed collection on WA crown lands, and a Regulation 4 Authority for collection in WA National Parks and reserves.</p>
<p>Exporting seed from Australia was also legal under the federal government’s <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/wildlife-trade/natives/list-exempt-native-specimens">Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999</a>. Who can blame him then for helping himself to Australia’s genetic resources? The door was wide open and a welcome sign was swinging above.</p>
<p>Australia is a lucky country. It has all the features needed to lead the world in the next great agricultural revolution. It has extensive farmlands, educated and technologically aware farmers, and world-class scientists.</p>
<p>What is under-appreciated by Australian governments is the vast wealth potential lodged in the genomes of its precious native flora and fauna. It can be assigned a quantifiable dollar value that could one day be far greater than that of our mineral wealth.</p>
<p>For this and many other reasons it’s critical that state and federal governments protect Australia’s wildlife, and legislate to prevent foreign interests raiding our genetic heritage before more is lost.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48895/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Wylie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia’s risks losing its valuable native plants that could help solve a global food problem. So do we need new laws to stop the seeds being taken overseas?Steve Wylie, Senior research associate in plant virology, Murdoch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/451712015-07-27T04:35:51Z2015-07-27T04:35:51ZSouth Africa’s struggling agricultural sector: what went wrong 20 years ago<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89643/original/image-20150724-8478-1mnz73i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A South African farmer from Piketberg 100km outside Cape Town inspects the dry soil in his field of sewn wheat. It is cheaper to import the crop than to grow it commercially.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Epa/Nic Bothma</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa’s decision to play by the global rules of free trade post 1994 put the country’s agricultural sector in a difficult position.</p>
<p>While it was expected to compete against the best in the world, the support that could have helped it was taken away. At the same time, the countries it was competing against were very supportive of the sector - some times as much as three times more. This meant that new black farmers missed out on the opportunity to catch up with farmers who had been supported previously.</p>
<p>Beyond that, there was the problem of land reform which needed to be addressed without putting the spirit of reconciliation as well as productivity at risk. </p>
<p>South Africa has limited agricultural potential and produces at relatively high cost to attain the same unit of output as most countries in the world. It is classified as a semi-arid area, meaning its rainfall is low and erratic. The country has an average annual <a href="http://www.southafrica.info/travel/advice/climate.htm#.VbI-_LPvOCh">rainfall</a> of less than 500 mm compared with the global average of 860 mm. </p>
<p>Only 12% of its 1.2 million square kilometres is suitable for agricultural <a href="http://www.tradingeconomics.com/south-africa/arable-land-percent-of-land-area-wb-data.html">use</a>. </p>
<h2>Political imperatives</h2>
<p>Although the agricultural sector had to provide food, the new democratic government also needed it to address political challenges related to rural development, social and political issues. The focus at the time was on transforming the sector to achieve these political goals rather than to prepare for global competition. </p>
<p>Looking at land ownership, this is understandable. More than 80% of agricultural land was owned by <a href="http://www.plaas.org.za/sites/default/files/publications-pdf/No1%20Fact%20check%20web.pdf">white</a> commercial farmers, yet the white <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/LivingInSA/LivingInSA.pdf">population</a> made up about 13% of the country. Addressing the unequal and racially skewed land distribution would also contribute to overcoming the socioeconomic challenges the country faced. These included unemployment, income inequality, food insecurity, poverty and malnutrition. </p>
<p>Possibly the biggest of them all is unemployment, which has remained at <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/presentation/Stats%20SA%20presentation%20on%20skills%20and%20unemployment_16%20September.pdf">more than 20%</a> in this 20-year period. The majority of the unemployed are unskilled or have low skills and are affected by low and poor levels of education. The agriculture and mining sectors absorb the majority.</p>
<p>Employment in the sector has declined substantially over time. In the 1970s agriculture used to employ over 2 million people on farms alone, or about a quarter of the <a href="http://www.southafrica.info/business/economy/sectors/agricultural-sector.htm#.VbI_PbPvOCh">employed</a>. By 2014, <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/presentation/Stats%20SA%20presentation%20on%20skills%20and%20unemployment_16%20September.pdf">fewer than 700,000</a> were employed on farms, less than 5% of the employed.</p>
<h2>Tracing the problem</h2>
<p>Within a year of the democratic government coming into power it had to accede to the World Trade <a href="https://www.wto.org/">Organisation</a> (WTO). This meant that South Africa entered into an agreement that exposed its economy to global competition and had to play by global rules, both at home and internationally. </p>
<p>Other agreements were <a href="http://www.thedti.gov.za/trade_investment/ited_trade_agreement.jsp">signed</a> with the European Union (EU) and southern African countries. Some are still being negotiated.</p>
<p>The direction taken by the new government was contrary to the stance adopted by the apartheid government which protected and supported white South African businesses. The agricultural sector was a beneficiary through various forms of support. This included direct subsidies or through institutions such as commodity boards. The boards were responsible for regulating and supporting commodities through price setting, inputs, throughput and final products.</p>
<p>But the support was a burden to the national fiscus. To reduce costs the new government got rid of the boards. The government would not have managed to finance 60 000 white commercial farmers only, while there were an estimated 3 million smallholder farmers who have not received support from the pre-democratic government. To balance the scales, it was more convenient to remove most of the support than to expand it. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89644/original/image-20150724-8478-yhyetf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89644/original/image-20150724-8478-yhyetf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89644/original/image-20150724-8478-yhyetf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89644/original/image-20150724-8478-yhyetf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89644/original/image-20150724-8478-yhyetf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89644/original/image-20150724-8478-yhyetf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89644/original/image-20150724-8478-yhyetf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black farmers like Koos Mthimkhulu have not received sufficient support.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The consequences</h2>
<p>Two decisions - accession to the WTO and deregulation - put the sector in a very difficult position. In terms of job creation the sector has performed poorly. In addition, its contribution to <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=735&id=4">GDP</a> has shrunk to less than 3% of GDP from 4.6% in 1994. </p>
<p>Land redistribution has also not succeeded. <a href="http://www.plaas.org.za/plaas-publication/FC01">Only 7.5%</a> of he land targeted for black people has been transferred. </p>
<p>The problem with this failure is that it has led to radical proposals that could lead to outcomes similar to those experienced in <a href="http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/zimbabwe/ZimLand0302-02.htm">Zimbabwe</a>. </p>
<p>There has also been very declining government contribution to research & development and an intensive extension service. The R&D gap has been partly filled by the private sector.</p>
<p>While international market access has improved and there is evidence of global competitiveness, domestic competition has become much tougher. Examples of this include the influx of poultry <a href="http://qz.com/394335/the-united-states-is-bullying-south-africa-into-buying-its-cheap-unwanted-chicken/">products</a>, frozen potato <a href="http://www.itac.org.za/news-headlines/itac-in-the-media/frozen-potato-chips-heat-up-trade-war-between-sa,-european-union">chips</a> and increasing <a href="http://www.indexmundi.com/agriculture/?country=za&commodity=wheat&graph=imports">wheat</a> imports. </p>
<p>Hectares planted for <a href="http://www.csa.gov.et/index.php/2013-02-20-13-43-35/national-statistics-abstract/129-2003-agriculture-statistics-abstract">wheat</a> are now one third of what they were in the late 1980s. This is because it is cheaper to import wheat than to grow it. The same is true of cotton. In the early 1990s, more than 100 000 ha used to be planted for <a href="http://www.csa.gov.et/index.php/2013-02-20-13-43-35/national-statistics-abstract/129-2003-agriculture-statistics-abstract">cotton</a>. Now only one tenth of that is planted because cheaper products can be imported. </p>
<h2>Some positive outcomes</h2>
<p>Despite the limited agricultural potential and resource scarcity, South Africa has managed to make substantial improvements in many areas. It remains one of the main exporters of agricultural products to the most lucrative markets in the developed world. It exports citrus, wool, avocados and nuts to the US and horticultural products, wine and tea to the EU.</p>
<p>South Africa has also found new markets. Its biggest trading partners are now in Africa, overtaking the EU which used to dominate most facets of trade.</p>
<p>There has also been more diversification in terms of products such as soybeans. These are in high demand globally and investment is increasing to support production. Production has been increased with the use of fewer hectares due to technology adoption and the planting of genetically modified <a href="http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/south-africa-leads-continent-in-terms-of-gmo-crops-2015-02-24">organisms</a>.</p>
<p>Government played an instrumental role by opening up markets, creating the environment and adjusting policies to allow the private sector to take advantage of opportunities. It also opened up market access beyond what was required by the WTO.</p>
<h2>Policy concerns</h2>
<p>Some of the contributors to the sector’s poor performance have been policy implementation and the panic these have caused among farmers. Land reform is one policy area that will need to be designed and implemented better. </p>
<p>There are other government programmes which were pursued with the aim of transforming the sector, but the implementation, evaluation and monitoring have been very poor. Support of smallholders and black farmers was inadequate and was without mentorship. </p>
<p>Technology transfer/adoption and extension services were either poor or non-existent in many areas. And some national policies are not helpful to farmers to compete in global terms because the custodians are separate government departments. Even if these issues were addressed, South Africa will remain a high-cost producer which presents its own set of challenges.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45171/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mmatlou Kalaba receives funding from National Research Foundation (NRF).</span></em></p>South Africa’s agricultural industry has struggled over the past 20 years due to the country’s rush to liberalise the sector while other countries continued to support their farmers.Mmatlou Kalaba, Lecturer in Agricultural Economics, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/389512015-04-30T05:14:35Z2015-04-30T05:14:35ZCut pesticide use to boost yields? It’s worked for millions of farmers in Asia and Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79603/original/image-20150428-3067-5elesc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">No insects here – and no insecticide either.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/faooftheun/14579407578">FAO of the UN</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pesticides are intended to be harmful. They kill pests, diseases and weeds. But some also harm humans and wildlife. Pesticides are a huge global business, worth <a href="http://www.bccresearch.com/pressroom/chm/global-market-pesticides-reach-$65.3-billion-2017">around US$45 billion</a>. Each year, 3.5 billion kilogrammes of pesticides are applied to food crops and their use is growing. Much use of this use is at best ineffective and at worst outright harmful. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/6/1/152">recent research</a> we showed that farmers in Asia and Africa have been able to cut the use of pesticides while boosting crop yields, reducing costs and delivering healthier profits. Even the landscape surrounding the farms benefits. Each kilogramme of pesticide used in agriculture imposes €3-15 (US$4-19) of external economic costs on the <a href="http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/6/1/152">environment, wildlife and human health</a> – money spent by water companies to remove them from drinking water, for instance, or the loss of valuable pollinating insects.</p>
<p>Any reduction in use, therefore, saves farmers costs, but also benefits the wider economy too. Cutting out pesticides can be a no-brainer.</p>
<h2>A different way of doing things</h2>
<p>All pests have some natural predators and parasites and for farmers these are often free. Farmers can build their use into farm management and minimise or even replace synthetic pesticides. This is known as <a href="http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/GENERAL/whatisipm.html">integrated pest management</a> (IPM), an approach focused on manipulating the crop ecosystem rather than simply wiping pests out. </p>
<p>Through these farming strategies crop yields can be increased while reducing pesticide application and costs. Farmers get more and the environment wins too. Other <a href="http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/114/8/1571.full?sid=4974140e-94f6-4056-87af-50e30b48cae1">research</a> is increasingly showing that sustainable approaches in agriculture can both increase yields and improve the environment – whether the focus is management of soils, water, trees or livestock.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/6/1/152">our research</a>, we analysed 85 IPM projects from 24 countries in Asia and Africa that were implemented over the past 20 years. We wanted to assess their productivity and reliance on pesticides. </p>
<p>Across all the projects we found yields were up by an average of 41% over periods of 1-5 years after project implementation, while pesticide use went down by 69%. This goes against the conventional assumption which states that pesticide use and yields are positively correlated – as one goes up, so does the other. Our results show otherwise. Most cases we assessed fell firmly into the top-left section of the below graph where pesticide use falls and yields increase.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79759/original/image-20150429-23361-12h19pr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79759/original/image-20150429-23361-12h19pr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79759/original/image-20150429-23361-12h19pr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79759/original/image-20150429-23361-12h19pr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79759/original/image-20150429-23361-12h19pr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79759/original/image-20150429-23361-12h19pr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79759/original/image-20150429-23361-12h19pr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79759/original/image-20150429-23361-12h19pr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cutting pesticides appears to work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pretty & Bharucha</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most significant innovation has been the deployment of farmer field schools (FFS) to spread IPM. These outdoor schools, which are run on principles of ecological education and learning through experience, don’t just teach farmers about new technology. They also boost ecological knowledge, problem-solving skills and teach farmers how to use their political strength.</p>
<p>FFSs have been set up in 90 countries and there are huge numbers of graduates: 650,000 in Bangladesh, 930,000 in Vietnam and 1.5m in Indonesia. Some 20,000 FFS graduates worldwide are now running schools for other farmers, having graduated from farmer to expert trainer.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79610/original/image-20150428-3058-iqjyoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79610/original/image-20150428-3058-iqjyoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79610/original/image-20150428-3058-iqjyoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79610/original/image-20150428-3058-iqjyoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79610/original/image-20150428-3058-iqjyoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79610/original/image-20150428-3058-iqjyoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79610/original/image-20150428-3058-iqjyoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79610/original/image-20150428-3058-iqjyoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Training Pakistani cotton farmers in pest management.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ifpri/5278282994">IFPRI</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>IPM in practice</h2>
<p>Across the 24 countries and 85 projects we assessed, various different methods were employed to achieve these results. In the irrigated rice fields of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, predatory beetles are excellent pest-controllers, but are killed when sprayed. Research showed insecticide applications in the first 40 days of rice planting were counter-productive. Two million farmers therefore adopted a “no early spray” rule, which saved money and reduced pesticide use by more than half.</p>
<p>The melon fly is one of Bangladesh’s biggest pests. Rather than just spray the watermelon fields, simple pheromone traps were created using a male-scented lure in a recycled plastic jar or bottle with a small amount of insecticide. The results were spectacular: yields have risen 40-130% within 2 years, while insecticide use fell from 15 sprays per season to zero, meaning a <a href="http://www.oired.vt.edu/ipmil/success-and-impact/success-stories/fruit-fly-pheromones-bangladesh/">healthy boost in profits</a>.</p>
<p>Clever behavioural manipulation can also make some cropped areas unattractive to pests. In Kenya, the push-pull system design – <em>vutu sukumu</em> – means farmers mix maize with legumes and plant grass varieties on field borders. The maize pests are pushed away by natural chemicals released by the legumes, while their predators are pulled in by the natural chemicals produced by the grass borders. As it happens, the mix also suppresses the invasive and parasitic <em>Striga</em>, better known as witchweed.</p>
<h2>Too complicated?</h2>
<p>Despite the evidence, many still believe IPM to be <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261219408000884">too complex</a> for farmers to understand – and explicit national policy support has been relatively rare. In the past 20 years, the only countries that have seen <a href="http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/6/1/152/htm">significant falls in pesticide use</a> are
the UK (down 44%), France (down 38%), Japan (down 32%), and Vietnam (down 24%). </p>
<p>Some pesticide manufacturers have even appropriated the FFS model to promote greater use of their products. There are good reasons for such push-back: in some countries <a href="ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/006/ad487E/ad487E00.pdf">local markets for pesticides have collapsed</a>, such as in East Java in Indonesia. </p>
<p>IPM has remarkable potential but the job is never done, so investment in research and development must continue in the long term. Ecological and economic conditions change; climates change too. Pests, diseases and weeds evolve, new pests and diseases emerge (often because of pesticide overuse) and pests and diseases are easily transported or are carried to new locations, often where natural enemies do not exist. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79591/original/image-20150428-3071-1b51tfw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79591/original/image-20150428-3071-1b51tfw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79591/original/image-20150428-3071-1b51tfw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79591/original/image-20150428-3071-1b51tfw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79591/original/image-20150428-3071-1b51tfw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79591/original/image-20150428-3071-1b51tfw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79591/original/image-20150428-3071-1b51tfw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79591/original/image-20150428-3071-1b51tfw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The banana leaf roller is a very hungry caterpillar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/scotnelson/14780986306/in/photolist-ogFjnN-oxUm8a-oy9sGA-ozVWP2-ow9qgu-oybijg-9D5FZR-8MCUGP-apRWGp-51mjSz">Scot Nelson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In just the past few years we have seen the emergence of the <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/banana-farmers-reel-under-butterfly-attack/article6185077.ece">banana leaf roller</a> in India and Nepal, the invasive cassava mealybug in south-east Asia, cucumber mosaic virus in Bangladesh, tomato yellow leaf curl virus in West Africa and cassava mosaic virus and brown streak virus in Uganda. Each requires rapid and co-ordinated action. But working with nature’s services – rather than against them – offers new routes to success.</p>
<p>We have shown that millions of small farmers across Asia and Africa using IPM packages can deliver substantial reductions in pesticide use coupled with increased yields. Reduced reliance on synthetic pesticides delivers a range of on and off-farm benefits, including savings, improved public health and improved natural capital on and around farms. Yet, IPM, like other forms of sustainable intensification of agriculture, is much more than just a set of technologies. It is knowledge-intensive, builds social capital and so contributes to society too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38951/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jules Pretty is affiliated with both Essex Wildlife Trust and Rural Community Council of Essex as a Vice-President.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zareen Pervez Bharucha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Spraying chemicals on crops has proven costly and counter-productive, according to new research.Jules Pretty, Professor of Environment and Society and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of EssexZareen Pervez Bharucha, Senior Research Officer , University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/355592015-04-28T01:47:53Z2015-04-28T01:47:53ZThe future of food: growing more with the same land<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77174/original/image-20150407-26512-1gn5apn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wheat ready for harvest in New South Wales. But how to increase production using the same areas of land?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/suburbanbloke/14391816767">Flickr/Tim J Keegan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are three main reasons why the productivity of existing farmland will need to dramatically increase in the next 40 years.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The world’s population is <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/346/6206/234.abstract">unlikely to stabilise</a> this century and is on course to reach up to 12 billion by 2100. That’s double the existing population and a lot of people to feed.</p></li>
<li><p>The economic growth, urbanisation and rising affluence of developing and emerging economies are driving “<a href="http://ccafs.cgiar.org/commission#.VG2CYYe5x94">nutrition transitions</a>” towards more Western diets rich in sugar, animal fat and protein. Note that it takes 2.5 to 100 times more resources to produce energy and protein from livestock than from grain.</p></li>
<li><p>There is limited scope for significantly expanding agricultural land after constraints and trade-offs are considered. The incorporation of new lands into production is likely to come with important social and ecological constraints and costs. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>So, how are we likely to deal with the challenge?</p>
<h2>Improving yield</h2>
<p>There is a gap between present farming yields and the increased yields that could be achieved from applying good agronomic management. Closing this gap is called “reducing yield or productivity gaps”. We know that reducing productivity gaps alone is likely to help us meet nearly half of the required demand by 2050. </p>
<p>Lifting agricultural productivity and food supply were listed as key practical actions by the <a href="http://www.g20australia.org/g20_priorities/g20_2014_agenda/growth_development">G20 leaders</a> when they met in Brisbane last year.</p>
<p>Supporting food security and economic growth in low-income countries is a way to generate opportunities for investment and trade globally, such as “<a href="https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/devel_e/a4t_e/aid4trade_e.htm">aid for trade</a>”.</p>
<p>For example, economic growth in Africa was set to reach 5.2% in 2014 with rising investment growth in natural resources and infrastructure, and strong household spending.</p>
<p>But increasing land and water productivity should not come at the expense of the environment or people’s sources of livelihoods, both human and natural. </p>
<h2>More from the same</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/341/6141/33.short">sustainable intensification of agriculture</a> has been proposed as a possible solution. This is producing more food from existing farmland in a way that the future production potential and livelihoods of rural communities are not undermined and the environment is not affected.</p>
<p>For example, better matching crops, varieties and management to seasonal conditions is likely to increase productivity and reduce risks both in small holder and large scale commercial agriculture.</p>
<p>But targets, time-frames, measurable indicators and methods necessary to achieve sustainable intensification remain loosely defined. This inhibits any informed analyses of emerging trade-offs between the multiple functions of agriculture: food and fibre production, environmental and socio-economic outputs.</p>
<p>It is clear that the quantification and analysis of these trade-offs will require new thinking beyond the traditionally restricted focus upon raising yields.</p>
<h2>New thinking</h2>
<p>Clearly, the first challenge is breaking down disciplinary silos of knowledge. This will allow a wider range of scientists to work with a wide range of stakeholders further to farmers, including environmentalists, agri-businesses, industry, NGOs and governments.</p>
<p>Also, any practical interventions and technologies required are likely to differ depending on each farming community’s circumstances. There is no silver bullet that could be applied across the myriad of situations.</p>
<p>For example three simple and complementary entry points addressing the multiplicity of production and socioeconomic situations could include:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>For poorly resourced farmers, it is paramount that production efficiencies of their limited assets is improved. For this group basic information on “best fit” crop agronomy, livestock husbandry and climate risk management should be prioritised.</p></li>
<li><p>Further increases in productivity can be achieved among the better resourced and skilled farmers by generating the incentives for them to invest into more profitable and risk-efficient practises, and a mix of farm enterprises. </p></li>
<li><p>Where productivity gaps have been narrowed down already, more significant or transformation changes might be required. This will involve the design of new farming systems that are able to further intensify the use of land and water or add value to existing produce. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>All productivity increases will have to be judged against gains in environmental and ecosystem services. This will help us to protect critical factors such as water quality, environmental flows, pollination services, soil quality and natural fisheries.</p>
<p>Sustainable intensification targets should also include nutritional, social, community and gender outcomes.</p>
<p>In low-income countries, rapid changes in cultivated land use are restructuring smallholder farming. Urban and international migration by mostly men looking for work has seen more women working in agriculture and loss of youth.</p>
<h2>A public-private sector partnership</h2>
<p>Investing in capacity building should remain a priority for the sustainable intensification of agriculture both in Australia and the developing world.</p>
<p>But the responsibility to improve agriculture through R&D can no longer be dominated by the public sector.</p>
<p>Public-private partnerships will be crucial drivers for future technological innovation and capacity building in the agriculture sector globally. Partnerships with NGOs will be crucial to reach high numbers of marginal and smallholder farmers in emerging economies.</p>
<p>Further research within a public-private-civic partnership approach offers the prospect of innovation along the food value chain.</p>
<p>Connecting farmers to markets and private sector services is one agenda being strongly promoted in research for development of the agricultural sectors in Africa and Asia.</p>
<hr>
<p>Dr Colin Charters from the <a href="http://www.crawfordfund.org/about/crawford-fund-staff/">Crawford Fund</a> was a co-author on this article.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35559/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Rodriguez receives funding from the Australian Center for International Agriculture Researc (ACIAR), the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), and the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mario Herrero received funding from the Australian Government as its contribution to CSiRO and by other donors including the Gates Foundation and the CGIAR.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Carberry receives funding from the Australian Government through its support of CSIRO research. From January 2015, he will join ICRISAT, an international agricultural research institute based in Hyderabad, India.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Toni Darbas has received funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and is currently employed on DFAT and ACIAR projects.</span></em></p>The world’s population is set to double by the end of the century. But there is only so much land available for food production.Daniel Rodriguez, Associate professor, The University of QueenslandMario Herrero, Chief Research Scientist, Food Systems and the Environment, CSIROPeter Carberry, Chief Research Scientist, CSIROToni Darbas, Social scientist, CSIROLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/381352015-03-02T15:44:34Z2015-03-02T15:44:34ZA deadly, mutating wheat fungus is spreading – here’s how to track it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73305/original/image-20150227-16157-1j5snvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C68%2C989%2C541&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Yellow Rust spores can be seen bursting out of a wheat leaf from the inside, tearing their way through the epidermis.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kim Findlay/John Innes Centre</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the major diseases of wheat is caused by the yellow rust fungus, <em>Puccinia striiformis</em>, which threatens all major wheat-producing areas of the world. Ominously, we have discovered that the UK population of this pathogen is shifting dramatically, with the emergence of new strains which can overcome some of our most important wheat varieties. </p>
<p>We have developed a genetic technique that helps us characterise the pathogen, allowing farmers to make informed decisions about which wheat varieties to plant. </p>
<p>Wheat is a critical staple crop, <a href="http://faostat.fao.org/">providing 20% of the calories and 25% of the protein</a> consumed globally by humankind. Despite modern agricultural practices, diseases of major food crops can cause <a href="http://purl.umn.edu/102401">pre-harvest yield losses of up to 15%</a>. </p>
<p>In 2013, I joined forces with colleagues at the John Innes Centre and The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich with the National Institute of Agricultural Botany in Cambridge to develop a new genomics-driven surveillance method to track the devastating yellow rust fungus and investigate the genetic basis of the new pathogen population. </p>
<p>Our <a href="http://genomebiology.com/2015/16/1/23">new “field pathogenomics” method</a> is a fast way to analyse fungal diseases from field samples and pinpoint the exact genotype. Current techniques rely on time-consuming phenotypic characterisation – checking the response of different plant varieties to infection by the pathogen – or costly in-lab processes. These methods can only sample a relatively small proportion of the fungal population. </p>
<p>With help from contributors to the UK Cereal Pathogen Virulence Survey, we collected wheat samples infected with the wheat yellow rust pathogen from 17 different counties across the UK. We then used our newly developed “field pathogenomics” method to characterise the genotypes of the samples. As each field sample consists of both the pathogen and its host plant, we were able to analyse both the pathogen and the susceptible host. In the future, this will provide a rapid means for confirming the presence of disease on wheat varieties that may have previously been resistant to disease. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73462/original/image-20150302-5232-8zz5u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73462/original/image-20150302-5232-8zz5u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=260&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73462/original/image-20150302-5232-8zz5u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=260&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73462/original/image-20150302-5232-8zz5u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=260&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73462/original/image-20150302-5232-8zz5u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73462/original/image-20150302-5232-8zz5u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73462/original/image-20150302-5232-8zz5u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Under siege: wheat is a major global crop, but threatened by fungal pathogens.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Felsoetold_Wheat_field,_Hungary.jpg">Takkk</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Invasive pathogens</h2>
<p>We found that the wheat yellow rust pathogen population has undergone a major shift in recent years. Interestingly, the yellow rust population detected in the UK in 2013 was completely different at the genetic level to previous UK populations. This difference seems to represent a number of recent exotic introductions into the UK and could have serious implications for wheat production in the UK. </p>
<p>A subset of the new pathogen population was able to infect the same wheat varieties as a subset of the older UK pathogen population. Because the same varieties are infected, this new pathogen population would have been missed if analysis were based on traditional phenotypic characterisation alone. Spotting this new pathogen population is important, because even if it infects the same wheat varieties it could still have serious implications for disease incidence. The new pathogen population may have other important traits or infect other wheat varieties not included in our test set.</p>
<p>As we move forward, “field pathogenomics” could be applied to the surveillance of many pathogens besides wheat yellow rust pathogens, and could contribute to addressing human, animal and plant health issues. Such detailed knowledge of shifts in pathogen populations is important for both understanding and managing emerging diseases. For wheat yellow rust, our new technology could provide farmers with early indications of changes in the pathogen population, and have a positive impact on decisions regarding which varieties to plant in the field.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38135/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diane Saunders receives funding from the BBSRC.</span></em></p>A wheat-infecting pathogen is on the march in the UK - but new genetic techniques will enable faster, clearer diagnosis.Diane Saunders, Research Fellow in Computational Biology at The Genome Analysis Centre and, John Innes CentreLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/298582014-08-13T12:48:38Z2014-08-13T12:48:38ZCounter crop patents by freeing seeds to feed the world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56406/original/2pj4tczv-1407938378.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=52%2C86%2C1020%2C618&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Free the seed!</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Irwin Goldman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Today, just three companies – Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta – account for about half of all commercial seed sales. More and more, agricultural patents are used to increase the control these and similar companies wield over access to the seeds with which farmers feed the world and – especially in the Global South – themselves and their families. </p>
<p>But it was not always this way. Improving crops through plant breeding has always been a core part of farming and gardening. Farmers would freely exchange their seed with others in order to identify characteristics that could be beneficial in their particular soil or climate conditions. Grow them, cross-breed them, pick the best, then grow and cross-breed them again. Scientific plant breeders do essentially the same thing, and free exchange of seeds and the freedom to use them for the breeding of additional varieties has been a key component of agricultural progress. </p>
<p>Over the past 20 years the growth of the free and <a href="http://opensource.org/osd-annotated">open source software</a> movement, whose poster child is the operating system <a href="http://www.linuxfoundation.org/about">Linux</a>, has provided an alternative to proprietary software from megacorps such as Microsoft, Apple and IBM, and a means to protect against <a href="http://endsoftpatents.org/">software patents</a>. Taking inspiration from this, we have created a similar organisation, the Open Source Seed Initiative (<a href="http://www.opensourceseedinitiative.org/">OSSI</a>), whose aim is to free the seed – that is, to make sure that the genes in at least some plant seeds can never be locked away from use by intellectual property rights. </p>
<p>OSSI kicked off its outreach activities on the University of Wisconsin campus on April 17 this year, with members – plant breeders, seed companies, and sustainability advocates – rallying to share seeds with each other and with the community. They then took a pledge to keep that seed freely available to anyone who wants to use it. </p>
<p>We chose April 17 as it had been designated as the <a href="http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/17-april--day-of-peasants-struggle-mainmenu-33/1564-april-17th-international-day-of-farmers-struggles-in-defence-of-peasants-and-farmers-seeds">International Day of Struggles in Defence of Peasants’ and Farmers’ Seeds</a>, announced by landless and peasant farmers groups worldwide in response to the growing struggles they face with commercialised agriculture and the increased patenting of seeds. </p>
<p>OSSI’s <a href="http://www.opensourceseedinitiative.org/about/ossi-pledge/">Open Source Seed Pledge</a> commits anyone who receives and uses OSSI seed to keep that seed, and any seed derivatives that are bred from that seed, freely available for use by others: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>By opening this packet, you pledge that you will not restrict others’ use of these seeds and their derivatives by patents, licenses, or any other means. You pledge that if you transfer these seeds or their derivatives you will acknowledge the source of these seeds and accompany your transfer with this pledge.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This pledge is OSSI’s equivalent of the idea that underpins the open source software movement, in the form of the General Public Licence, or <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/#GPL">GPL</a>. The GPL states that the software is free to use, but any modifications to it or other software derived from it must be licensed under the GPL too, ensuring the benefits accrue to the public and continue to be free. </p>
<p>Importantly, that’s “free” as in freedom, not “free” as in you don’t have to pay for it. Because just as we need free speech to be able to say what needs to be said, we also need free seed to be able to breed what needs to be bred.</p>
<p>This OSSI pledge to freely share is essential. A patented seed cannot be saved, or replanted, or shared by farmers and gardeners. There is no standard research exemption for patented material, so plant breeders at universities and small seed companies usually cannot use patented seed to breed the new crop varieties that should be sustainable alternatives to the conventional cultivars of the big commercial firms. The yield and productivity increases of the last sixty years began with academic, government, and public interest scientific institutions breeding and developing the crop varieties that now feed billions of people worldwide. The fruits of their research – the seed – were freely available to all. Today much research work is being done by major agro-tech businesses, and their products must be purchased.</p>
<p>In order to continually improve our crops to feed the world’s rapidly growing population, farmers and plant breeders need access to the best genetic resources. But increasingly that access is being limited due to seed patenting and licensing. OSSI creates a pool of genetic resources that are freely available for all to use, share, save, replant, and breed, and are a conduit through which seeds can be widely distributed. These seeds can never be wholly owned or their use restricted. In addition, OSSI serves an educational mission to promote awareness of germplasm access for farmers, gardeners, and plant breeders and to foster a conversation about plant breeders’ continued “freedom to operate.” </p>
<p>Among the 36 varieties of 14 species shared on April 17 were <a href="http://www.wildgardenseed.com/product_info.php?products_id=63">Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled cress</a> from Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seed in Oregon, <a href="http://coloradomaltingcompany.com/FULL_PINT_MALT.html">Full Pint malting barley</a> from <a href="http://cropandsoil.oregonstate.edu/content/pat-hayes">Pat Hayes</a> of Oregon State University, <a href="http://www.highmowingseeds.com/organic-non-gmo-seeds-midnight-lightning-zucchini.html">Midnight Lightning zucchini</a> from Vermont’s High Mowing Organic Seeds, and Sovereign carrots from the University of Wisconsin’s Irwin Goldman. </p>
<p>Most of the OSSI varieties are available as organic seed and were bred with organic growers and gardeners in mind. Within a month, OSSI received more than 400 orders from 16 countries. Clearly there is a hunger for seed that is not just agronomically good, but also fair. In the future OSSI hopes to offer a certified brand that can be used in seed catalogues to identify “free seed” to those who agree that what the world needs is more free and open source seeds, not patented and indentured seeds.</p>
<p>OSSI is itself a seed that we have planted, and we wait with hope to see how it grows.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29858/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Irwin Goldman is on the board of the Open Source Seed Initiative, which is in the process of obtaining not-for-profit status in the US.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack Kloppenburg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Today, just three companies – Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta – account for about half of all commercial seed sales. More and more, agricultural patents are used to increase the control these and similar…Jack Kloppenburg, Professor of Community & Environmental Sociology, University of Wisconsin-MadisonIrwin Goldman, Professor and Chair, Department of Horticulture, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/228432014-07-15T04:41:45Z2014-07-15T04:41:45ZAgriculture in Australia: growing more than our farming future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53717/original/7cq794yz-1405309645.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">With growing pressures on our land, the aim will be to 'farm smarter, not harder'.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/choctruffle/4118962131">choctruffle/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>AUSTRALIA 2025: How will science address the challenges of the future? In collaboration with Australia’s chief scientist <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ian-chubb-5153/profile_bio">Ian Chubb</a>, we’re asking how each science discipline will contribute to Australia now and in the future. Written by luminaries and accompanied by two expert commentaries to ensure a broader perspective, these articles run fortnightly and focus on each of the major scientific areas. In this final instalment, we examine our agricultural legacy.</em></p>
<p>Food and agriculture are fundamental to human survival and it was the birth of agriculture and farming that laid down the basis for human civilisation. </p>
<p>Since the first crops were domesticated around 10,000 years ago, advances in agriculture have been intimately linked with human development and the growing world population. </p>
<p>Technology and innovation have underpinned those advances. Since the Green Revolution in the early 1960s crop production has increased nearly two and a half times, from 1.84 billion tonnes to 4.38 billion tonnes in 2007, achieved on only <a href="http://www.innovation.gov.au/Science/PMSEIC/Documents/AustraliaandFoodSecurityinaChangingWorld.pdf">11% more</a> cropped land.</p>
<p>Agriculture today is a very sophisticated and highly technical industry, and in Australia it has been one of our most innovative and efficient industries. Our farmers have remained competitive in a global food market despite Australia having low levels of subsidies relative to our major competitors. </p>
<p>The ability of this industry to adapt, innovate and form successful collaborations will continue to support a strong and prosperous Australia with sustainable food security.</p>
<h2>Breeding and feeding</h2>
<p>For Australia, food security is inextricably linked to the political stability of our region and has the potential to affect our national security. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48036/original/ns976xzy-1399523787.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48036/original/ns976xzy-1399523787.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48036/original/ns976xzy-1399523787.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48036/original/ns976xzy-1399523787.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48036/original/ns976xzy-1399523787.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48036/original/ns976xzy-1399523787.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48036/original/ns976xzy-1399523787.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikecogh/11854392794">mikecogh/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Food security also affects our status as a premier food exporting nation and the health and wellbeing of our population. The likelihood of a food crisis directly affecting Australia is remote given that we have enjoyed cheap, safe and high quality food for many decades and we produce enough food today to feed 60 million people – three times our current population. </p>
<p>Although we account for only about 3% of the global food trade, our food exports are worth more than <a href="http://www.futuredirections.org.au/publications/food-and-water-crises/28-global-food-and-water-crises-swa/1331-exporting-australia-s-agricultural-know-how.html">A$30 billion</a> annually and we are <a href="http://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/FoodSecurity_web.pdf">one of only 11 countries</a> that are net food exporters. </p>
<p>While these are comforting statistics and our agricultural products are important, when put into a global context, we produce enough to feed only 2% of the Asian population, so we cannot claim, now or even potentially, to be the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-trade-beats-aid-in-boosting-global-food-security-22546">food bowl of Asia</a>”.</p>
<p>Addressing the global food security problem will depend upon the development and delivery of technologies that lead to increased food production. But this must be achieved without increasing the area under production, since arable land is now limited, and under conditions where the frequency and severity of climate “shocks” are likely to increase due to the effects of climate change.</p>
<h2>Being realistic about growth</h2>
<p>Our previous reliance on water and energy to drive up yields is not an option for the next phase of productivity gains.</p>
<p>Agriculture has an excellent record of productivity growth over the past 50 years, allowing global production to meet the large population increase and, for countries such as Australia, these gains have kept food prices low while keeping farmers in business. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48003/original/2v7wvddc-1399506473.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48003/original/2v7wvddc-1399506473.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48003/original/2v7wvddc-1399506473.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48003/original/2v7wvddc-1399506473.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48003/original/2v7wvddc-1399506473.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48003/original/2v7wvddc-1399506473.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48003/original/2v7wvddc-1399506473.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australia’s dryland agriculture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wak1/3218213289/">Wakx/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Agricultural production has remained important to our economy because we have effectively developed and delivered new technologies through a strong research base and a highly skilled and innovative farming community. In particular, we have been able to maintain our position even though we produce food on the driest inhabited continent, on low quality soils and with continual climate variability. </p>
<p>Our agricultural R&D capability ranks among the best in the world, and more recently Australia has developed a strong capability in climate change research including studies on impacts, adaptation and mitigation. We can now implement this capability to enhance agricultural production both in Australia and in our region.</p>
<p>These strengths provide a solid foundation to catalyse transformation of the agricultural industries to address regional food security. Australia can make a significant contribution to the task because we have extensive experience in dealing with difficult and low input productions systems. </p>
<p>Our record in applying this experience may not have been perfect but we are now making serious attempts to address our past omissions. Indeed, we will have little choice given the predicted impact of climate change on our agricultural production regions.</p>
<h2>Off the farm and into the laboratory</h2>
<p>Our future in food production will lie within our current large scale farming systems where we have clear skills and where there is scope for increased efficiency rather than niche foods where high labour costs and low innovation make it hard for us to complete. </p>
<p>Over the next decade we will move to a scene where engineering and biology are intimately linked. <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-satellite-to-save-australia-we-should-have-one-of-those-13770">Satellites</a> will provide data on crop and rangeland health and productivity. This information will be combined with ground data and used as the basis for farm management decisions. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48013/original/bhz62nn5-1399509526.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48013/original/bhz62nn5-1399509526.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=825&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48013/original/bhz62nn5-1399509526.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=825&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48013/original/bhz62nn5-1399509526.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=825&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48013/original/bhz62nn5-1399509526.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1036&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48013/original/bhz62nn5-1399509526.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1036&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48013/original/bhz62nn5-1399509526.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1036&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/eawb/44524746/">EAWB/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We will know the detailed genetic makeup of our farm animals and our crops and will use the association between <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-a-gene-12951">genotype</a> (the genetic makeup) and phenotype (the physical characteristics) to predict performance under a diverse set of environmental conditions. </p>
<p>This information will feed into the decisions made by breeders to develop new crop cultivars or animal breeds to optimise the use of available resources while minimising the environmental impact of farming.</p>
<p>This move towards the utilisation of more specialist skills in agriculture is evident even today. Nowadays research teams look very different to those of the past. </p>
<p>If you were to set up a team today to develop a strategy to breed wheat with enhanced drought tolerance, your team will need to include software programmers, computer scientists, statisticians, crop physiologists, agronomists, cell biologists, pathologists, molecular biologists and geneticists.</p>
<p>Ideally you would also collaborate with climate scientists to understand the future production environments and help predict how your new varieties will perform. </p>
<p>The expectations of these scientists is also changing: a modern agronomist will need the traditional knowledge of cropping systems, fertiliser regimes, field pathology and so on but will also know techniques for assessing crop health based on analysis of the light reflected from crops and captured on images generated from drones or <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-satellite-to-save-australia-we-should-have-one-of-those-13770">satellites</a>.</p>
<p>Farmers are already using computer models to assess the status of their soils, crops and farming systems to support their decision making. </p>
<p>In the future farmers will also be capturing data from even more diverse sources, linking this to genetic information and predictive climate models and using the result to help them decide when to sow their crops, when to apply fertilisers, how to protect crops from disease and when to harvest.</p>
<h2>Investments and pay-offs</h2>
<p>Perhaps our greatest contribution to agricultural innovation will be through developing solutions to global food security challenges and delivering these solutions to partners around the world. Agriculture is so important to human survival that there is huge global investment in research at around <a href="http://www.asti.cgiar.org/pdf/Global_revision.pdf">US$40 billion annually</a>, largely from the private sector. </p>
<p>Although Australia currently accounts for only 1% of this investment, we are frequently sought out as a partner for both the public and private sector overseas. Our agricultural research capability has the potential to become a significant industry in its own right.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48016/original/z6szmqcj-1399510368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48016/original/z6szmqcj-1399510368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48016/original/z6szmqcj-1399510368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48016/original/z6szmqcj-1399510368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48016/original/z6szmqcj-1399510368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48016/original/z6szmqcj-1399510368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48016/original/z6szmqcj-1399510368.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rfsmedia/6473311075">rfsmedia/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the next decade we should build management, regulatory and support structures that allow us to capitalise on this international interest and build strong multinational research programs that can not only support food security in our region but also ensure our farmers have access to the latest technologies.</p>
<p>Agriculture is among our most technologically advanced industries, yet most Australians are largely unaware of the revolution that is occurring on our farms. </p>
<p>Many would be both surprised and fascinated to know just how sophisticated agricultural science has become and the role it plays in delivering the strong and prosperous Australia of the future.</p>
<hr>
<h2><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michael-docchio-115746/profile_bio">Michael D'Occhio</a>, Professor at University of Sydney</h2>
<p>The world is rapidly reaching the boundaries of agricultural land and the sustainable intensification of agriculture has emerged as a necessity to meet the increase in global demand for food. Given the limits to natural resources the world simply cannot afford to sustain the loss of food that is caused by diseases of plants and animals. </p>
<p>Currently, diseases (bacterial, viral, fungal) cause general losses of 20-40% of horticultural crops, 10-15% of grains, up to 50% of aquaculture and more than 20% of livestock worldwide. </p>
<p>Intensification of food production tends to exacerbate the occurrence and impact of diseases, and climate variability and change has introduced another layer of complexity in the emergence and spread of diseases. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53690/original/9tq4pc8p-1405302560.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53690/original/9tq4pc8p-1405302560.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53690/original/9tq4pc8p-1405302560.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53690/original/9tq4pc8p-1405302560.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53690/original/9tq4pc8p-1405302560.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53690/original/9tq4pc8p-1405302560.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53690/original/9tq4pc8p-1405302560.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Disease and land degradation can impact Australia’s agricultural output.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/john-schilling/355224091/">John Schilling/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The success of agriculture in Australia has been due, in part, to the relative freedom from diseases that impact food production elsewhere. Indeed, the high biosecurity status of Australia ensures safe and healthy domestic food and gives Australia preferred status in global food markets. Diseases involve many of the sciences such as immunology, pathology, genetics, epidemiology, public health and sociology. </p>
<p>While Australia is free of many food diseases there is considerable domestic, world-class expertise in the science of animal and plant diseases. This expertise has a very important role in ensuring that Australians continue to have safe, nutritious and healthy food and are protected from animal to human transmission of diseases (zoonoses). </p>
<p>Other important roles are creating new knowledge on diseases to prepare for future challenges and training the next generation of scientists and teachers. There is a broader role in the global community in food and nutritional security and human health, including through partnerships with developing countries in education, training, research and technology transfer.</p>
<hr>
<h2><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/dana-cordell-1041/profile_bio">Dana Cordell</a>, Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Technology Sydney</h2>
<p>An imminent <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/economics/report-hoses-down-unreal-food-boom-expectations/story-e6frg926-1226758546832#">food boom</a> to replace the mining boom in Australia is expected to double agricultural outputs to feed growing Asian demand. Much discussion and swift debate about this economic opportunity has ensued in the past 12 months alone at the <a href="http://www.globalaccesspartners.org/think-tanks/growth-summit">GAP Food Summit</a>, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (<a href="http://www.daff.gov.au/abares/Pages/Default.aspx">ABARES</a>) <a href="http://www.daff.gov.au/ABARES/outlook-2014/Pages/HOME.aspx">Outlook 2014</a> and <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/in-depth/global-food-forum">Global Food Forum</a>, demonstrating our responsiveness and entrepreneurship. </p>
<p>But a longer-term strategy based on genuine scientific inquiry is also needed to answer fundamental questions like where would the land, water, nutrients and farmers come from? The expert knowledge of agricultural scientists can help Australia “<a href="http://cpd.org.au/2012/10/farming-smarter-not-harder-2/">farm smarter, not harder</a>”. </p>
<p>Unlocking the “soil bank” to access stored nutrients from past decades of fertiliser application can increase agricultural productivity and reduce farmers’ vulnerability to fluctuations in climate and <a href="http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/3/1/86">fertiliser availability</a>. This contributes to a prosperous and healthy Australia, and, meets our moral commitment to <a href="http://thecommonwealth.org/history-of-the-commonwealth/perth-declaration-food-security-principles">food security</a> in the region. </p>
<p>The next generation of scientists may have more complex and wicked challenges to address, but this need not require being born a genius: at a recent <a href="http://www.gyss-one-north.sg/">Global Young Scientist Summit</a> I attended that brought together 16 Nobel Prize Laureates to share their secret to success, it essentially boiled down to one word: curiosity.</p>
<p>In the words of novelist and professor of biochemistry at Boston University Isaac Asimov:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not “Eureka!” [I found it!] but “that’s funny…”.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p><br>
<strong>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/australia-2025-series">Australia 2025: smart science series</a>, co-published with the <a href="http://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/2014/02/australia-2025-smart-science/">Office of the Chief Scientist</a>. Further reading:<br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-future-depends-on-a-strong-science-focus-today-22075">Australia’s future depends on a strong science focus today</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/physics-a-fundamental-force-for-future-security-22121">Physics: a fundamental force for future security</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/proteins-to-plastics-chemistry-as-a-dynamic-discipline-22123">Proteins to plastics: chemistry as a dynamic discipline</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/optimising-the-future-with-mathematics-22122">Optimising the future with mathematics</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-can-nurture-growth-and-prosperity-through-biology-22255">Australia can nurture growth and prosperity through biology</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-healthy-future-lets-put-medical-science-under-the-microscope-23190">A healthy future? Let’s put medical science under the microscope</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/groundbreaking-earth-sciences-for-a-smart-and-lucky-country-22254">Groundbreaking earth sciences for a smart – and lucky – country</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-reach-for-the-stars-australia-must-focus-on-astronomy-22124">To reach for the stars, Australia must focus on astronomy</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/marine-science-challenges-for-a-growing-blue-economy-22845">Marine science: challenges for a growing ‘blue economy’</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/building-the-nation-will-be-impossible-without-engineers-23191">Building the nation will be impossible without engineers</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-got-ict-talent-so-how-do-we-make-the-most-of-it-22842">Australia’s got ICT talent – so how do we make the most of it?</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/statistics-is-more-than-a-numbers-game-it-underpins-all-sciences-22256">Statistics is more than a numbers game – it underpins all sciences</a></strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22843/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Langridge receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Grains Research and Development Corporation, several Australian universities, the US Agency for International Development, Pioneer DuPont and Dow Agrosciences.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dana Cordell receives funding from RIRDC, GRDC, DAFF, CSIRO Sustainable Agriculture Flagship, Ian Potter Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael D’Occhio does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>AUSTRALIA 2025: How will science address the challenges of the future? In collaboration with Australia’s chief scientist Ian Chubb, we’re asking how each science discipline will contribute to Australia…Peter Langridge, CEO, Australian Centre for Plant Functional GenomicsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/225562014-01-29T15:22:58Z2014-01-29T15:22:58ZRevealed: the chemical blitz bees face in fields<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40129/original/f2q9gvmk-1391008679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A far-from-mellow yellow.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Owen Humphreys/PA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Perhaps I was naive, but when I discovered the extent of the chemical soup applied to typical fields I was astonished. As part of our ongoing investigations into the impact of pesticides on bees, we looked at 25 fields containing winter rapeseed or winter wheat during the 2012-13 growing season. For any particular field, the list of pesticides applied is worryingly long.</p>
<p>These are perfectly normal farms; not especially intensive, situated on the edge of the South Downs in East Sussex, an area of gentle hills, hedgerows and wooded valleys. Beautiful, rural England – Constable would have liked it here. But let’s look at it with a bee’s perspective rather than a painter’s eye.</p>
<h2>A chemical assault course</h2>
<p>Let’s look at one fairly typical field. The rapeseed crop, whose flowers the bees will feed on in season, is sown in late summer with a seed dressing containing the insecticide <a href="http://www.agchemaccess.com/Thiamethoxam">thiamethoxam</a>. This is a systemic neonicotinoid, with exceedingly high toxicity to bees. Taken up into the plant, detectable levels will be in the nectar and pollen the bees gather.</p>
<p>In November, despite the protection supposedly offered by the neonicotinoid seed dressing the crop is sprayed with another insecticide, the endearingly named <a href="http://www.mauk.co.uk/pdfs/Gandalf%20(12865)%2019%2010%2009.pdf">Gandalf</a>. What harm could the wise old wizard possibly do? Gandalf contains <a href="http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/agphome/documents/Pests_Pesticides/Specs/beta_cyf.pdf">beta-cyfluthrin</a>, a pyrethroid. <a href="http://citybugs.tamu.edu/factsheets/ipm/ent-6003/">Pyrethroids</a> are highly toxic to bees and other insects – killing insects is their job, after all – but as there should be no bees about in November that shouldn’t be a problem.</p>
<p>The following May, while flowering, the crop is sprayed with another pyrethroid, <a href="http://www.who.int/whopes/quality/en/Alphacypermethrin_WHO_specs_eval_Jan_2013.pdf">alpha-cypermethrin</a>. Only weeks later the crop is blitzed with three more pyrethroids just for good measure – a real belt-and-braces approach. Why use one when three will do? The crop is still flowering at this point (it was a late year), and will be crawling with foraging bumblebees, hoverflies and other pollinators.</p>
<p>Between winter and summer, the crop is also treated with a barrage of herbicides, fungicides, molluscicides and fertilisers – 22 different chemicals in total. Most may have little toxicity to bees in themselves, but some, such as a group of fungicides (<a href="http://resistance.nzpps.org/fungicides.php?p=dmi">demethylation inhibiting</a> or DMI fungicides), are known to interact with both neonicotinoids and pyrethroids, increasing their toxicity to bees.</p>
<p>So, when the fungicide <a href="http://www.agchemaccess.com/Prothioconazole">prothioconazole</a> is added to the mix tank that includes the year’s final application of chemicals, any feeding bee will be simultaneously exposed to a barrage of three pyrethroids, the thiamethoxam from the seed casing now in the nectar and pollen, and a fungicide that amplifies the toxicity of all these chemicals.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40127/original/3n5d58fq-1391007800.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40127/original/3n5d58fq-1391007800.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40127/original/3n5d58fq-1391007800.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40127/original/3n5d58fq-1391007800.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40127/original/3n5d58fq-1391007800.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40127/original/3n5d58fq-1391007800.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40127/original/3n5d58fq-1391007800.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40127/original/3n5d58fq-1391007800.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 22 chemicals applied to a single season’s planting of oil seed rape in Sussex.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dave Goulson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Many unknown factors</h2>
<p>We don’t really know what impact this has. Safety tests generally expose test insects to one chemical at a time, usually for just two days, while in reality they are chronically exposed to multiple pesticides throughout their lives.</p>
<p>The fact that bees still live in farmland suggests they’re pretty tough, but we don’t know the effects on other pollinators or wildlife. The agrochemical industry tell us all is well, but they also tell us, and the farmers they advise, that all these applications are necessary for growing crops, and that without them food production would collapse. I have my doubts. Is this really how we want the countryside managed? Do we really want to eat food produced this way?</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40128/original/z3ypkk35-1391008052.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40128/original/z3ypkk35-1391008052.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40128/original/z3ypkk35-1391008052.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40128/original/z3ypkk35-1391008052.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40128/original/z3ypkk35-1391008052.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40128/original/z3ypkk35-1391008052.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40128/original/z3ypkk35-1391008052.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40128/original/z3ypkk35-1391008052.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring and environmental campaigner.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">USFWS</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fifty one years ago, Rachel Carson’s book <a href="http://www.nrdc.org/health/pesticides/hcarson.asp">Silent Spring</a> highlighted the environmental damage leading from a dependence on pesticides, including poisoning farm workers with the pesticide DDT, now banned in much of the developed world. A new approach was developed, <a href="http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/GENERAL/whatisipm.html">Integrated Pest Management</a>, or IPM. More of a philosophy than a technique, IPM’s aim is to tackle pest problems using many methods, for example using pest resistant varieties, crop rotation, sacrificial <a href="http://www.growveg.com/growblogpost.aspx?id=140">trap crops</a>, and encouraging pests’ natural enemies. Only if all else fails and pests are in sufficient number to cause significant economic damage are pesticides applied.</p>
<p>Everyone agreed then, and still agrees, that this is the best, most sustainable method. But while IPM of sorts is still used in some small-scale horticultural crops, mainstream arable farming has forgotten about it. Why have we gone back to prophylactic applications of dozens of different toxic chemicals?</p>
<h2>Bad information</h2>
<p>A lot of the blame lies with government. We used to have a number of state-funded experimental farms in the UK, where crop research was conducted, and there used to be an independent <a href="http://www.adas.co.uk/">agricultural advisory service</a> – almost all have been sold off. IPM research is not funded; instead the agrochemical industry has been allowed to fill the gap. Now, 75% of agronomists who provide advice to farmers work for agrochemical companies. Small wonder that farmers use lots of pesticides.</p>
<p>One major reason not to use pesticides prophylactically – that is, “in case” of pests, rather than as a response to pests – is that pests quickly grow resistant, and eventually the pesticides become useless. Overuse would seem to be a dumb strategy for the agrochemical industry. But perhaps not. Each new compound is exclusively manufactured and sold by the company that developed it, but this exclusive right expires after a number of years, at which point anyone can manufacture it. The price drops, as do profits for the parent company – so it’s not so important if the pesticide has become ineffective. In fact if in the meantime they’ve developed a new product, then it is to their benefit. Not so good for farmers, on the other hand, who must pay the premium price for each new chemical generation.</p>
<p>It’s hard to escape the conclusion that current farming practices are not designed to benefit farmers, who pay through the nose for expensive pesticides, or consumers, who are offered expensive, pesticide-drenched food, or the environment, which is continually contaminated with a cocktail of chemicals. It is hard to see how they are arranged for any benefit other than maximising agrochemical company profits.</p>
<p>I think I might head home early today and finish digging over my veggie plot. At least I can control what goes into that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22556/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dave Goulson receives funding from Defra and BBSRC.</span></em></p>Perhaps I was naive, but when I discovered the extent of the chemical soup applied to typical fields I was astonished. As part of our ongoing investigations into the impact of pesticides on bees, we looked…Dave Goulson, Professor of Biology (Evolution, Behaviour and Environment), University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/198762014-01-07T15:13:12Z2014-01-07T15:13:12ZHow to feed nine billion people, and feed them well<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38593/original/zwkm42kf-1389106886.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We need more, but more of what? Perhaps not this.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Giles/PA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Resource-intensive agriculture, despite its productivity, nevertheless has failed to feed the world’s current population, never mind the nine billion people expected by 2050. This system that currently fails both people and planet is ripe for revision.</p>
<p>We need to be more ambitious, to go beyond simply producing more. We need to produce more of what’s good – not just cereal staples, but nutrition-dense foods – in ways that can prevent or even reverse land degradation, encourage biodiversity, conserve water, and allow the world’s poor more equal access to land, food, and markets than has historically been the case.</p>
<p>There is a significant “triple burden” of malnutrition. Some 850m people don’t have enough to eat. Perversely some <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/">1.4 billion people are overweight</a>, 600m of them obese. Both groups suffer from micronutrient malnutrition, a lack of key vitamins and minerals. These imbalances mean we ought to examine what exactly is being produced, and how it is distributed. The co-existence of highly productive agricultural systems and hunger, of obesity and starvation, powerfully highlight how global agriculture has failed to substantially narrow economic inequalities, and has perpetuated nutritional imbalances on billions.</p>
<p>And despite its failures, agriculture’s costs are high. Crop and livestock production is responsible for <a href="http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3107e/i3107e.PDF">half the methane and two-thirds of the nitrous oxide</a> released by humans. The use of nitrous fertiliser has disrupted global nitrogen and phosphorus cycles. And agriculture is a leading driver of global biodiversity loss, something that greatly affects communities around the world that <a href="http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/365/1554/2913.short">rely on wild species</a> for food and income.</p>
<h2>More, but more of what?</h2>
<p>We can’t simply hope to produce more of the same and feed the world. There are alternative models, but they need recognition and support. However the emphasis on <a href="http://user37685.vs.easily.co.uk/publications/Garnett2013FoodSustainability.pdf">production efficiency</a>“ is dominant, even in discussions of sustainable agricultural intensification. Here, thought is only given to how to increase supply of cereals and animal products in ever more efficient ways.</p>
<p>The Green Revolution in Latin America and South Asia, for example, resulted in tremendous increases in crop yield. But this was only because new technologies were supported by government subsidies, cheap credit, supportive markets and plentiful irrigation. This increased productivity did not, by itself, result in a better-fed population. It provided an abundance of calorie-rich staple crops such as rice and wheat, but saw the supply of nutrient-rich crops such as pulses and vegetables fall and their cost rise. And this model of intensive irrigation and fertiliser use wasn’t an option everywhere. India’s Green Revolution was concentrated in the favourable lands of the Punjab, ignoring the rain-fed drylands that support most of the country’s farmers. </p>
<p>Even when grown in larger amounts, crops must be accessible and affordable if they are to alleviate hunger. This cannot be left to global markets, whose volatility in recent years has made it substantially harder to alleviate poverty and hunger – a fact recognised by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, which <a href="http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/esag/docs/Interim_report_AT2050web.pdf">has stated</a> "unless local agriculture is developed and/or other income-earning opportunities open up, the food insecurity determined by limited local production will persist, even in the middle of potential plenty at the world level”.</p>
<p>So production is necessary, but insufficient: ensuring produce is properly distributed to fair markets is vital. In India for example, it has long been the case due to a lack of proper storage facilities, corruption and inequity in the means of distribution, grain surpluses are simply left to rot without ever reaching the hungry. </p>
<h2>Seeing past the status quo</h2>
<p>A <a href="http://www.nuffieldinternational.org/rep_pdf/1382473233Robert-Craig-report-2012.pdf">recent report</a> on food by Robert Craig, highlights just how dominant this “productivist” approach is. The report examines the status of agriculture in Brazil, Chile, Peru, the US, India, China and New Zealand. Craig shows how – while each country presents very different social-ecological conditions – the dominant rhetoric is the same in each: production, profits, demand, supply and prices of major commodities, traded on world markets. Seen through this lens, there is no room for a nuanced ecological approach, let alone awareness of the political, social and economic factors that influence hunger.</p>
<p>Estimates of land and water are pitted against demand projections. “Sustainability” only means using resources efficiently. Complex environments are reduced to either source or sink. The author is told in Peru “if river water reaches the sea it’s seen as a waste”. He is shown how resources could be developed to meet projected demand: the schemes range from trying to control how much farmers can irrigate in India, to spending <a href="http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/03/05/china%E2%80%99s-south-north-water-transfer-project-a-means-to-a-political-end/">£62 billion</a> to bring alive Mao’s vision of a canal to transport water from China’s southern region to its arid north. This is a scheme that has displaced over 300,000 people, disrupted the southern river basins, and may fail anyway, if climate change leaves them with less water in the southern rivers to draw from.</p>
<p>So are there alternatives? Very much so. There is an emerging global movement that emphasises increased consumer participation in (ostensibly) ecologically sound and socially just food systems. And for increasing production using ecologically sound methods, – so-called sustainable intensification, – there is a great deal of agroecological practice worldwide that is <a href="http://www.unep.org/dewa/agassessment/reports/IAASTD/EN/Agriculture%20at%20a%20Crossroads_Synthesis%20Report%20(English).pdf">recognised by researchers</a>.</p>
<p>In India, farmers are revitalising rice production by applying principles of the <a href="http://sri.ciifad.cornell.edu/">System of Rice Intensification</a>. In some states, the technique has been <a href="http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-09-09/goa/41902643_1_paddy-cultivation-rice-cultivation-sri-technique">officially endorsed and supported</a>.</p>
<p>Across Africa, sustainable production practices, designed with farmer participation, have raised yields, and enhanced the agricultural landscape. Such practices have also contributed to a range of human development goals, such as food security, alleviating poverty, and improving skills and knowledge. These systems and practices are designed to do more than just conserve resources and boost yields. More ambitious, they aim to feed people balanced, nutrient-rich diets, while reversing the substantially damaging effects on land, plant and wildlife biodiversity that industrial agriculture has wrought.</p>
<p>They can also boost human potential, by increasing the income, skills and political capital of small farmers and landless agricultural labourers who currently steward most of the world’s agricultural land, yet who are completely marginalised. These are the principles and perspectives at the frontlines of genuine change in the global food system. They are already here, and they are the seeds that have been sown for food’s sustainable future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19876/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zareen Pervez Bharucha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Resource-intensive agriculture, despite its productivity, nevertheless has failed to feed the world’s current population, never mind the nine billion people expected by 2050. This system that currently…Zareen Pervez Bharucha, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/164972014-01-06T14:58:25Z2014-01-06T14:58:25ZBreak agriculture’s chemical monopolies to free our food<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38531/original/8rsq5rtb-1389018298.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Keep looking - there's a new way of farming in there somewhere.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Geoff Caddick/PA </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Current farming methods rely too much on expensive chemicals such as fertiliser and pesticides; agroecology combines the best of ecological science and farmers’ knowledge to develop more sustainable food and farming.</p>
<p>This is not some fringe theory – agroecology has been <a href="http://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/blog/2013/10/17/mainstreaming-agroecology-is-this-the-future-of-farming/">discussed in the UK parliament</a>, and an Agroecology Strategy Bill to be presented to MPs will be launched at the <a href="http://www.oxfordrealfarmingconference.org/">Oxford Real Farming Conference</a> that starts today.</p>
<p>The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food has argued that <a href="http://www.srfood.org/images/stories/pdf/officialreports/20110308_a-hrc-16-49_agroecology_en.pdf">agroecology</a> can double food production in entire regions within ten years, while mitigating climate change and alleviating rural poverty. And a recent <a href="http://unctad.org/en/pages/PublicationWebflyer.aspx?publicationid=666">UNCTAD</a> report also made the benefits more visible for mainstream policy makers. </p>
<p>However, the term agroecology is now frequently used to mean very different things.</p>
<p>The French Minister of Agriculture declared his intention to have France become Europe’s “champion of agroecology”. But his government’s vision is radically different from that of French civil society and farmers’ organisations. Instead of merely promoting <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/11/09/no-till-farming-is-on-the-rise-thats-actually-a-big-deal/">no-till farming methods</a> with herbicide sprays, these organisations call for an agroecological approach that brings producers and consumers closer, boosts employment, the development of a solidarity-based economy, and diverse nutritious foods.</p>
<p>This emphasis on locally controlled food systems is at the heart of a radical agenda for food sovereignty in Europe that <a href="http://www.ensser.org/fileadmin/files/AgroEcologyTransformationSummary.pdf">transforms the system</a>, rather than conforms to the current model. But this transformation will not happen spontaneously. Change in Europe ultimately depends on the power of citizens to redirect public investments and policies that limit the spread of agroecology for sustainable food and farming.</p>
<h2>Re-localising food</h2>
<p>A growing number of initiatives in Europe aim to re-connect producers with consumers, using short food chains that supply local food. According to a recent <a href="http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=6279">EU commissioned study</a>, short food chains generate great social and economic benefits. They create a sense of community by building trust and social bonds. They also create jobs and strengthen local economies because producers keep a higher share of their food’s value.</p>
<p>The environmental impact of short food chains can be mixed. Greenhouse gas emissions can be high if electricity and fuel have to be sourced from far away, for example. So a major challenge is to find new ways of re-integrating food, energy, water and waste systems in <a href="http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/14619IIED.pdf">circular models</a>.</p>
<p>The overall focus is on doing more with less: widespread recycling and reuse; bringing production and consumption back from a global food supply chain to a more local, decentralised food web. From house clusters, municipalities, and whole cities, to semi-urban areas beyond city hinterlands linked to nearby farms and countryside.</p>
<h2>Free the seeds, reclaim the land</h2>
<p>Ensuring biodiversity-rich and change-resistant farming depends on unrestricted access to a wide range of seeds that are not proprietary products of big corporations. But European seed regulations and <a href="http://www.fera.defra.gov.uk/plants/plantVarieties/plantbreedersRights/">Plant Breeders Rights</a> encourage uniformity across farm landscapes by <a href="http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/14611IIED.pdf">restricting the free exchange of seeds</a>. While this benefits seed companies, it hampers our ability to develop the more genetically diverse farming systems we need to adapt to climate change. Changes to the law are urgently needed to liberate seeds from corporate control, and strengthen farmers’ rights.</p>
<p>Land ownership in Europe is also highly unequal. There are some 12m farms in the EU, but large farms of 100 hectares or more, representing only 3% of the total number, nevertheless <a href="http://www.eurovia.org/IMG/pdf/Land_in_Europe.pdf">control 50% of all farmed land</a>. For young people trying to enter farming, high land prices and an increasingly speculative market have made it even more difficult. We need a pan-European political process to reverse the concentration of land ownership.</p>
<p>But a number of citizens’ initiatives are taking land off the market in order to allow farmers to enter or stay in farming. For example <a href="http://www.terredeliens.org/-un-mouvement-trois-piliers-">Terre de Liens</a> (“ties to the land”) in France has bought more 2,000 hectares of farmland since 2007, held in perpetuity for the sake of current and future generations. Land is then let to farmers who largely farm organically and sell through short food webs that create jobs and wealth in the local economy.</p>
<h2>Citizen action</h2>
<p>Citizens need to change the way public money is spent. For example, funds are required to build the infrastructure of decentralised food systems: local abattoirs, mills, food processing facilities, renewable energy generation, and water treatment.</p>
<p>Working with allies in local government, public money can be redirected into procurement schemes that favour farmers using agroecological methods and short food chains to deliver healthy, local food to schools, hospitals, and office canteens. For example, in both <a href="http://blogs.worldwatch.org/transformingcultures/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/Rethinking-School-Food-Morgan-and-Sonnino.pdf">Italy and Scotland</a>, local authorities have promoted local producers by finding ways to bypass the “non-discrimination” EU regulatory constraints. Only local products are used to prepare school meals in several Italian towns.</p>
<p>Another challenge is to change research priorities towards developing sustainable food systems. The challenge is to increase public funding for long-neglected agroecological research <em>and</em> democratise how such research is governed. Citizens – farmers – should be more involved in defining strategic research priorities and policies. More emphasis needs to be placed on forms of social organisation and education that encourage direct democracy and partnerships, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvdZ0kkl7yk">including farmers’ movements and their innovation networks.</a>.</p>
<p>In a globalised world, new trade rules will be needed to protect local food systems and local businesses, and new supply management policies to reduce wasteful production and consumption and connect farms to fair markets. But this must not simply tweak the system. This is where a greater convergence between agroecology, <a href="http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/food-sovereignty-and-trade-mainmenu-38">food sovereignty</a>, the <a href="http://www.unrisd.org/unrisd/website/events.nsf/(httpEvents)/513E84D6BA2D56EEC1257AFA00469157?OpenDocument">solidarity economy</a>, and <a href="http://www.degrowth.org">degrowth</a> movements can help.</p>
<p>Localised, circular systems based on agroecology can strengthen food sovereignty, democracy, and cultural diversity in Europe. Given the threats of climate change, peak oil, water scarcity, food supply, and steeply rising unemployment in the EU, piecemeal solutions that perpetuate “business as usual” will not do.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/16497/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michel Pimbert receives funding from the Swiss Development Cooperation, The Salvia Foundation, Swedish Sida, and the EU.</span></em></p>Current farming methods rely too much on expensive chemicals such as fertiliser and pesticides; agroecology combines the best of ecological science and farmers’ knowledge to develop more sustainable food…Michel Pimbert, Director, Centre for Agroecology and Food Security, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/210952013-12-06T14:41:12Z2013-12-06T14:41:12ZSpace exploration can drive the next agricultural revolution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36814/original/fgrdh3fb-1386080779.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The future of agriculture?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nick Dragotta</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Habitation of outer space needs solving air, water, energy and food supplies within a tight space. And this isn’t a problem of an apocalyptic, remote future. Developing this technology addresses some of the grand challenges to our civilisation. Space exploration can be one of the main drivers to revolutionise sustainable agriculture on Earth for many reasons.</p>
<p>First, so far agriculture has not been a driver of innovation in automation, but a beneficent of it. That needs to change. The current economy promotes increasing the size of farm equipment and producing a single crop for many years, which are techniques better suited to automation. Advances in robotics can decrease the detrimental effects of farming by improving resource management and inter-cropping (that is changing the type of crop produced). Small-scale robotic platforms can provide each plant with the required resources as it needs them. This can help agriculture reclaim urban environments, such as inside buildings or on roofs. </p>
<p>Addressing the challenge of making urban environments greener is similar to the challenges of solving food production on a spaceship or in a Mars colony. Solutions will not come from incremental changes to the current system, but require a disruptive approach – such as the use of robots.</p>
<p>Second, sustainable agriculture is a systems challenge that requires advances in renewable energy and integration of resource management, especially in urban environments or those of a spaceship. </p>
<p>Going to Mars is a “rucksack problem”. Explorers have to decide on a combination of provisions and tools that allow them to maximise exploration and minimise their risk of failure. They are limited by the size of the spaceship. Larger vessels can bring more goods, but also require larger crews to maintain them, again requiring more resources. </p>
<p>Leaving the Earth is not easy. The launch mass of a spaceship is limited by fuel constraints. The larger the mass, the more fuel is needed for lift-off. This limits how long we can sustain ourselves in space, where we can go and what we can do there. </p>
<p>Calculating the right launch mass and potential yield has shown that growing food in space becomes advantageous for missions exceeding two years in space. For shorter missions the additional launch mass required to grow plants would be better used by bringing additional resources. An alternative scenario is to launch life support systems to arrive before humans do. In both cases, automation is necessary because use of humans in space is inefficient.</p>
<p>On Earth advances in agricultural practises and transport systems have solved the automation problem in even the most remote locations. But this approach is about to reach its limit, and may be solutions from space research can help. For instance, solutions for a sustainable presence in space need better use of the resources, including efficient recycling. So food could be grown from waste water and carbon dioxide. Such technology would have benefits on Earth too.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36816/original/f6h8zr43-1386080931.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36816/original/f6h8zr43-1386080931.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36816/original/f6h8zr43-1386080931.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36816/original/f6h8zr43-1386080931.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36816/original/f6h8zr43-1386080931.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36816/original/f6h8zr43-1386080931.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36816/original/f6h8zr43-1386080931.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36816/original/f6h8zr43-1386080931.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bioregenerative life support system for long duration human space missions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">University of Colorado</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Third, NASA’s development of advanced life support systems is strongly dependent on the perceived value of its mission. Using space exploration as a driver to solve our most pressing grand challenges: air, energy, water and food is a strong narrative to gain public support.</p>
<p>Growing food in space is not a critical component of missions yet, but will be soon enough. Research in space-based agriculture should focus on three fronts: increasing our knowledge of in-space plant growth, solving the key challenges to plant maintenance and understanding the impact that such kind of living has on humans in the isolation of space. </p>
<p>These three developments are closely related and all get help from robots. As fully autonomous plant maintenance requires solutions to a series of hard problems in perception and manipulation, the initial focus should be on remote operation of the growing process. Devising a system that solves all the mechanical, user interface and communication challenges that would allow for sustainably growing plants can serve as the basis for future automation. This could then motivate its own mission, such as deploying a greenhouse container to the Moon or Mars. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an edited version of an essay that appeared on <a href="http://robohub.org/air-water-energy-and-food-in-a-nutshell-space-exploration-as-driver-for-sustainable-robotic-agriculture/">RoboHub</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/21095/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nikolaus Correll has been awarded an early career fellowship from NASA.</span></em></p>Habitation of outer space needs solving air, water, energy and food supplies within a tight space. And this isn’t a problem of an apocalyptic, remote future. Developing this technology addresses some of…Nikolaus Correll, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.