Published 14-09-2021
| Article appears in October 2021 Issue

Food Sector to Receive $150 Million Boost

13-09-2021

Three new missions from CSIRO will grow Australia’s agriculture and food sectors targeting $20 billion by 2030.

CSIRO Chief Executive Dr Larry Marshall said the three missions together aim to capture a $20 billion opportunity for Australian agriculture to extend its position as a world leader. “We’re bringing all of our newest science and technology, from Artificial Intelligence to genetics and smart materials, to bear on overcoming our oldest national challenge – drought,” Dr Marshall said. “Overcoming its impact, protecting the authenticity of Australian products, and inventing whole new markets will grow one of our most important national industries.”

The research missions aim to:

• Reduce the impacts of drought by 30 per cent

• Increase the value of Australian agrifood exports by $10 billion, and

• Produce an additional $10 billion of high-quality protein products by 2030.

“We’re proud to have so many collaborators on board to help Australian agriculture become more resilient, more profitable, and to produce food that is more plentiful and healthier for Australians and our customers around the world,” Dr Marshall said. The mission will also reduce the cost of meeting export requirements through new automated systems that use sensors and other remote technologies. CSIRO’s Missions Program is focused on solving six great challenges – our health and wellbeing, our food security and quality, our national security, the resilience of our environment, the sustainability of our energy and resources, and the future of our industries.

Partnerships are the life blood of these missions, and include the following:

The Drought Resilience Mission brings together CSIRO, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment and Bureau of Meteorology. The Trusted Agrifood Exports Mission has live projects underway with the Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment, Hort Innovation and Meat and Livestock Australia.

The Future Protein Mission brings together CSIRO with Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources, Victorian State Government, Meat & Livestock Australia and the Grains Research & Development Corporation along with industry partners v2food, GrainCorp, Ridley, Clara Foods, Wide Open Agriculture and start-ups such as Eden Brew.

The Mission is also working with Food Innovation Australia Limited; Austrade; Victorian, New South Wales and South Australian state governments; Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries; Western Australia’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development; University of Queensland, University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, University of NSW and Edith Cowan University.

RELATED NEWS

  1. Australia’s industries and productivity could be transformed by  ‘foundation models’, the technology underpinning the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) — and we can build sovereign capability in this technology — says a new report by Australia's national science agency, the CSIRO.  
    "...
  2. Now at full speed, Fortescue’s new electric excavator has dug a million tonnes at Fortescue’s Chichester operations in the Pilbara, WA, and the mining company says it’s a massive milestone in its decarbonisation plan.
    For the past three months, it had been running at partial capacity while the site...
  3. For the past month, the Australian Army has been part of Project Convergence, a US-led campaign of learning through persistent experimentation testing. Its mission is to develop networks, robotic and autonomous systems, air defence and strike-related systems.
    Project Convergence was designed to...