Question: With new technologly being developed all the time, where do you see Australia in terms of agriculture in 50+ years - what are your predictions? Do you think the enviroment will be able to support people as well as it does now? What problems may need to be addressed?

Asked by kelseyjaye98 to Brent, Dominique, Harjeet, Kim, Rebecca on 14 Mar 2013.

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  1. Photo: Rebecca DoyleRebecca Doyle
    answered on 14 Mar 2013:

    Hi Kelseyjaye98,

    I think with new technologies we will be able to manage crops and animals more efficiently. We will use less water, come up with smarter ways to produce the same volumes of food with less resources, reduce wastage, and utilise byproducts more efficiently. With this, we will be able to meet local food demands in Australia, but meeting world food demands is a more complicated problem – we will need to address these same issues in each region.

    Bec

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  2. Photo: Harjeet KhannaHarjeet Khanna
    answered on 15 Mar 2013:

    Hi Kelseyjaye98
    We will see more productive crops and innovative management practices. We will see an increase in productivity, but with more efficient water, energy and nutrient use and without sending more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
    Cheers
    Harjeet

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  3. Photo: Brent KaiserBrent Kaiser
    answered on 16 Mar 2013:

    Hi kelseyjay98,

    I see our agriculture being innovative and focussed on sustainability and quality. The climate will force our agriculture to work more efficiently with respect to water and nutrients. We may have to forgo certain crops but the size of the country and the varied growing regions across it will allow us to adapt and continue to produce food.

    We will need to invest in schemes that protect land and water as well as $$ in agricultural research and training to make sure we all achieve best practice and identify solutions to our particular needs. If I was a betting man I would put money on Agriculture succeeding 50 years on.

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  4. Photo: Kim RitmanKim Ritman
    answered on 17 Mar 2013:

    Added to the questions from the others we will see Australia specialising on things it does well. Asian countries have a growing middle class, ie getting richer, and that means their diet changes as they want to buy more meat, dairy, sugar and specialist horticulture. We do those things really well. We are also well located to export to those countries and provide a counter season production cycle to countries in the northern hemisphere.

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Comments

  1. Photo: kelseyjaye98kelseyjaye98
    commented on 22 Mar 2013:

    thanks! 🙂

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