In September 2020, the then Minister for Agriculture launched a National Agricultural Innovation Agenda, which set out five pillars of reform for Australia’s agricultural innovation system:/p>
- strengthening ecosystem leadership, cohesion and culture through clear strategic direction and increased collaboration
- improving the balance of funding and investment to deliver both incremental and transformational innovation, and growing private sector and international investment
- embedding world-class innovation practices through greater transparency and entrepreneurship
- strengthening our regions to achieve greater uptake of innovation
- creating the next generation innovation platform by improving the foundations of agricultural innovation, including data and regulatory settings.
The pillars were informed by the 2019 report Agricultural Innovation – A National Approach to Grow Australia’s Future that made the case for improved leadership and cohesion. The Agenda was also informed by public consultation undertaken by the department on how to improve the rural research and development corporation (RDC) system.
Outcomes and actions
On 11 October 2021, the National Agricultural Innovation Policy Statement was released to clarify the long term objectives and priorities for the agricultural innovation system.
The Policy Statement outlines a strategy for how Australia can use agricultural innovation to position the sector as resilient, profitable and internationally competitive.
The statement established four new priorities to align efforts and target investment within the innovation system.
Download
| Document | File size |
|---|---|
| National Agricultural Innovation Policy Statement PDF | 3.6 MB |
| National Agricultural Innovation Policy Statement DOCX | 931 KB |
If you have difficulty accessing these files, visit web accessibility for assistance.
The National Agricultural Policy Statement established four new innovation priorities that set challenges for Australia’s agricultural innovation system. These priorities focus efforts and investments across Australia’s agricultural innovation system and will help achieve greater returns on-farm and along the supply chain.
The four innovation priorities are:
- Australia is a trusted exporter of premium food and agricultural products by 2030
- Australia will champion climate resilience to increase the productivity, profitability and sustainability of the agricultural sector by 2030
- Australia is a world leader in preventing and rapidly responding to significant incursions of pests and diseases through futureproofing our biosecurity system by 2030
- Australia is a mature adopter, developer and exporter of digital agriculture by 2030
Targeted priorities will help align efforts to address shared national challenges and help Australian agriculture take advantage of strategic opportunities. They will help Australia’s agricultural innovation system increase its focus on transformational, cross-sectoral activities and research for the public good.
The Australian Government has provided $2.8 million to Agricultural Innovation Australia, a cross-industry approach to address the big, national challenges facing the agricultural sector. This includes $1.5 million for AIA to develop investment strategies to support the agricultural innovation priorities. AIA fosters a whole-of-sector approach to agricultural innovation that that will increase impact on-farm and along the supply chain and deliver value for the Australian community.
RDCs remain instrumental in underpinning the productivity of Australia’s agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries for 4 decades.
RDCs are responsible for investing around $800 million each year, with almost $300 million of this from Australian Government funding and around $500 million from industry levies.
In partnership with the RDCs, the government is continuing to drive improvements in the RDC system.
The Future Drought Fund shows how we can target investment in an area of national importance and deliver more transformative outcomes for the public good.
Digital technologies will be the foundation of the next major wave of agricultural productivity. The Australian Farm Institute estimates that full adoption of digital tools by the agriculture sector could boost productivity by around $20.3 billion each year. Digital agriculture will deliver growth and employment opportunities across the sector and into the heart of our regional economies.
Released April 2022, the Digital Foundations for Agriculture Strategy sets the foundations for development and widespread uptake of digital technologies across our agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries.
The strategy sets out a national, whole-of-sector approach that is focussed on uptake and the whole supply-chain The strategy outlines the following five key action focus areas:
- Leadership – to enhance connection and coordination across the sector, encourage pooling of resources and providing a clear plan to unify stakeholders around collective long-term goals
- Skills – to deliver the skills and expertise needed by both the current and future workforce to modernise the sector
- Data and Governance – to maximise data use, ensuring good data management, common data standards, and interoperability
- Opportunities and Value Proposition – to help producers understand and realise the benefits from digitising their businesses, ensuring appropriate and agile regulation, while fostering faster commercialisation
- Connectivity and Infrastructure – to ensure agricultural businesses understand their connectivity options and can access the infrastructure they need
Download
| Document | File size |
|---|---|
| Digital Foundations for Agriculture Strategy PDF | 3.0 MB |
If you have difficulty accessing these files, visit web accessibility for assistance.
As a part of the Digital Strategy, the Australian Government has partnered with the National Farmers’ Federation by providing $400,000 to expand the Australian Farm Data Code. The Code aims to provide transparency in the way service providers collect and use farm data. The Code also allows service providers to utilise a common language when working with farmers and their data. The work to expand the Code will help farmers understand how their data is used, shared and managed. It will include aligning the Code with the Australian Government’s Consumer Data Right and raising awareness of the Code to producers and service providers.
Further information about the Code can be found on the NFF website.
There are opportunities to get better value from our investments in agricultural research by sharing our research, building opportunities for collaboration, and showcasing our innovations to international investors.
The internationally focused growAG platform allows RDCs and others across the system to showcase their technologies to the world. Launched in April 2021, the Australian Government contributed $2 million to develop the platform which will accelerate commercialisation through private sector investment, encourage new collaborations and leverage global expertise.
Extension and adoption of innovation by farmers, is critical to ensuring we have a sustainable and productive agricultural system that meets on-farm and supply chain needs. To deliver the growth benefits we know innovation will bring, we must ensure it can be easily adopted at the grass-roots level.
RDCs can demonstrate leadership to drive improved uptake of innovation. We are working with RDCs to strengthen extension, adoption and commercialisation of innovation by supporting a focus on co-design for innovation where the insights and needs of farmers and other end users guide action and investment.
In 2021, the Australian Government developed a package of documents to support the work undertaken by RDCs:
- The Guidelines for Statutory Funding Agreements outlines key performance indicators for each of the five performance principles for RDCs.
- The Best Practice Guide to Stakeholder Consultation provides a set of guiding principles which apply to all RDCs; each RDC provided their own individualised guide.
- The RDC Knowledge Transfer and Commercialisation Guide provides guidance for the management of technology commercialisation to assist driving commercialisation out of the RDCs and bring in extra funding from private sources.