Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Industry, I present the committee's report entitled Farming Smarter: Inquiry into agricultural innovation together with the minutes of proceedings.

In accordance with standing order 39(e) the report was made a Parliamentary Paper.

by leave—Australia has always been a world leader in agricultural innovation. Our farmers, supported by researchers, industry groups and other stakeholders, remain at the global forefront of the invention and adoption of technologies. This enthusiasm for change has helped Australian agriculture to retain its competitive edge over other producers.

Technological advances will be even more important to Australian agriculture in the future. The sector is part of a broader boom in innovation across the Australian economy, which is presenting exciting opportunities for farm businesses. Meanwhile, new technologies will help the sector to tackle challenges such as growing competition in the region, resource scarcity, and the like.

The agriculture sector must be able to make the most of this boom in order to support productivity growth and to maintain its competitiveness. At the core of the innovation boom are individual farm businesses that make decisions to adopt new technologies. If the government wishes to support innovation and growth, it must support these businesses in technology adoption.

It was in this light that the committee conducted its inquiry into emerging agricultural technologies, key barriers to their adoption, and what the government can do to reduce these barriers.

First and foremost, the committee was pleased to hear of the vast scope and potential of emerging technologies in agriculture. Agricultural innovation is drawing on a wide range of disciplines, such as agricultural science, chemistry, engineering and information technology. From these diverse roots, the innovation system is developing technologies which run the gamut from monitoring individual animal behaviour, to improving drought resistance in crops, to providing big data analysis on a range of decisions about farm inputs. Importantly, the new technologies set to emerge in the agricultural sector will be set apart from those that have come before. They will perform ever more complex tasks across more and more types of farms; they will collect and share greater volumes of data to support the decision-making; and they will be more integrated across farms and all along the supply chains.

Through the course of this inquiry, it became clear that these complex new technologies will bring their own challenges to farm businesses seeking to adopt them. Some of the barriers to successful adoption stem from the demands that the new digital technologies will place on internet, cloud and other physical infrastructure. In other situations, some regulations may unfairly impede the free use of new technologies, particularly in light of the size of the Australian market.

Another difficult set of barriers to adoption arise from the demand for more people with more advanced skills to shepherd technologies through the innovation system and into the hands of the end user. There needs to be more collaboration between the various organisations involved in the R and D process. There also needs to be a surge in skilled researchers and workers to support the sector.

The government has already taken strong steps to support innovators in tackling the agricultural sector's challenges. For example, the ongoing rollout of the National Broadband Network will support farm businesses to take up the opportunities presented by emerging digital technologies. In addition, the Cooperative Research Centres are widely seen as very strong mechanisms for collaborative research on issues of cross-sectoral importance.

The committee's recommendations have also supported the tailoring of existing programs to the needs of the sector as it undergoes technological transformation.

Some regulations, such as those affecting unmanned aerial vehicles, may be clarified or adjusted to help farm businesses to exploit the full potential of new technologies. In another case, the committee recommended tailoring STEM education strategies to open students' eyes to the exciting potential of careers in agriculture.

These recommendations of the committee have focussed on ensuring that the government is responsive to the needs of farm businesses seeking to adopt innovation. The committee has also recommended ways to support other stakeholders to do the same, for example by the development of a national working group to coordinate our world-leading efforts in agricultural innovation. The sector must move towards a more fluid, collaborative approach to innovation to ensure that it can make the most of the exciting future of technology in agriculture.

On behalf of the committee, I would like to thank all who have contributed their valuable time and wisdom throughout the course of the inquiry. I also thank my committee colleagues for their enthusiasm, time and efforts, and of course I thank the hardworking secretariat who helped us through this inquiry. They really sped things up so the committee, like many committees at the moment, could meet the time lines of this parliament, finish our report and present it to the parliament today before, inevitably it seems, it will be prorogued sometime soon.

I commend the report to the House.

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