Question: What do you think is one of the biggest scientific issues or challenges in the field of agriculture at the moment?

Asked by davidmcafee to Brent, Dominique, Harjeet, Kim, Rebecca on 12 Mar 2013.

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  1. Photo: Brent KaiserBrent Kaiser
    answered on 12 Mar 2013:

    Hi Davidmcafee,

    I believe the rapid rate of climate change is our biggest concern and driving scientific issue. The rate of change is surpassing our ability to develop new crops that can adapt and grow productively. Climate change also influences the location and suitability of arable land through water availability, salinity, temperature and pests. Science needs to identify which crops we can grow into the future and which crops people will be willing to eat – do we move from wheat and rice to alternatives such as legumes?

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  2. Photo: Rebecca DoyleRebecca Doyle
    answered on 12 Mar 2013:

    Hi Davidmcafee,

    I really believe that climate change will be our biggest concern as well. Extreme drought, flood and fire events really devastate agriculture, both in Australia and around the world. This has huge ramifications – the availability of food can be significantly reduced, and so food prices increase, it also then puts further pressure on the environment as we need to use more resources to try and produce the same volume of food.

    Brent gives great examples of cropping issues, and these same sorts of issues also affect animal production

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  3. Photo: Kim RitmanKim Ritman
    answered on 13 Mar 2013:

    in the next twenty years a big problem will also be the amount of protein (meat) that emerging middle classes under population and economic growth will demand

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  4. Photo: Harjeet KhannaHarjeet Khanna
    answered on 13 Mar 2013:

    I think climate change and access to good quality water in many parts of the world would be the two.

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  5. Photo: Dominique CotterillDominique Cotterill
    answered on 13 Mar 2013:

    I agree with Kim, it takes a lot of water, feed and land to produce meat and dairy so it will be very difficult to produce enough for everyone who wants it. We really should be eating more vegetables and less meat, not the other way around.

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