A nationwide outbreak of foot and mouth disease; an invasion of a devastating wheat disease; our honeybees completely wiped out. These are just three possible disastrous scenarios facing Australia; they’re…
Tractors may have revolutionised farming but to protect biosecurity, farmers could do with some extra help.
Ben McLeod/Flickr
New technology to tackle biosecurity challenges down the track is one of the five megatrends identified in today’s CSIRO report Australia’s Biosecurity Future: preparing for future biological challenges…
Cattle bound for live export in the Northern Territory.
AAP Image/Grenville Turne
The number of animals exported live out of Australia is set to increase as Australia prepares to enter into a A$1 billion trade agreement with China. Agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce has claimed up to…
Canary grass is an invasive plant, but new varieties are still being developed for pasture.
Stuart Hay
Weeds cost Australian farmers around A$4 billion every year — and they are likely to do a similar amount of damage to the environment. In a new global survey published this week in Proceedings of the National…
Air pollution is harming India’s wheat farmers.
EPA
Researchers have long known that man-made climate change will harm yields of important crops, possibly causing problems for the world’s food security. But new research shows air pollution doesn’t just…
Australia won’t be building anything as big as the Gordon Dam any time soon.
JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons
The agricultural green paper released last week proposes 27 new water and irrigation projects, which the government claims will be necessary for Australia’s agricultural expansion. The emphasis is firmly…
Marketing meat in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo.
James Akena/Reuters
Foundation essay: This article is part of a series marking the launch of The Conversation in the US. Our foundation essays are longer than our usual comment and analysis articles and take a wider look…
The Ord River dam, completed in 1971, formed Australia’s largest artificial lake in the far north west.
Graeme Churchard/Flickr
Some 27 irrigation and dam projects are highlighted in the green paper for agricultural competitiveness released this week by agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce. Six of the projects – five in Tasmania…
In 2012 and 2013 parts of New Zealand suffered the worst drought in 70 years.
Dave Young/Flickr
Jim Salinger, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Over 2012 and 2013, parts of New Zealand experienced their worst drought in nearly 70 years. Drought is the costliest climate extreme in New Zealand; the 2012-2013 event depressed the country’s GDP by…
We are in the middle of one of the biggest experiments in human history. At its core is the homogenisation of global food systems, which increasingly must deliver the same products to an expanding population…
Farmers delivering by bicycle at Chandamale milk station in southern Malawi.
Cesar Revoredo-Giha
Governments and donors have tried hard to improve dairy farming in sub-Saharan Africa in recent years. Many recognise that it has much potential to boost the economic situation of poor farmers in the region…
A male Onthophagus vacca, the species of dung beetle being released this week in Western Australia.
CSIRO
The average cow drops between 10 and 12 dung pads (also known as “pats”) every day and just one of those cow pads can produce up to 3,000 flies in a fortnight. With more than 28 million cattle in Australia…
Australia’s dairy sector will lose out due to Russian sanctions, but there are bigger issues in play.
Anatoly Maltsev/AAP
Russia’s targeting of $A400 million of Australian food exports and the government’s muddled response are just the latest setback for a sector struggling under failed policy approaches. Agriculture is Australia’s…
Some market gardens face being squeezed out by land-hungry developers.
Flickr/Indigo Skies Photography
Australia is regarded as a food-secure country and this is mostly true for bulk commodities such as dairy, grain and meat, which make up a large part of our diet. But many people are still failing to eat…
Give a man a ploughshare, and he’ll turn it into a sword.
Zenodot Verlagsgesellschaft mbH
For hundreds of thousands of years humans lived in hunter-gatherer societies, eating wild plants and animals. Inequality in these groups is thought to have been very low, with evidence suggesting food…
It’s perhaps fitting that mining magnate Andrew Forrest is in the vanguard of a move to position Australia as a major food supplier to China. Fitting, because if the plan is to work, Australian agriculture…
The polar vortex played havoc with Niagara Falls (and much of the rest of North America too).
EPA/Rick Warne
A string of events earlier this year provided a sobering snapshot of a global climate system out of whack. Europe suffered devastating floods, Britain’s coastline was mauled, and the polar vortex cast…
With growing pressures on our land, the aim will be to ‘farm smarter, not harder’.
choctruffle/Flickr
Peter Langridge, Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics
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…
Managing Director, Triple Helix Consulting; Chief Executive Officer, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research; Professorial Fellow, ANU Fenner School for the Environment and Society, Australian National University