The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) wants growers to join the extensive  debate and help reshape the Australian grains industry  following the release of the ‘Australian Grains Industry Strategy 2005-25” today.

GRDC chairman Terry Enright said the “Towards a Single Vision” Strategy – released by Prime Minister John Howard to a Grains Week audience in Perth –– aimed to address the industry’s current fragmentation and duplication .

Major steps had already been made towards that goal, because the Strategy – commissioned by the Grains Council of Australia (GCA) and funded by the GRDC – had won the public supported by all the “heavyweights”  in the Australian Grains Industry.

“Major change – in technologies, products, information flows,  business structures and markets – is occurring right across the grains industry, creating a pressing need for all industry sectors to develop stronger working relationships,” Mr Enright said.

“The GRDC backed the development of the ‘Australian Grains Industry Strategy 2005-2025’ as another step in its commitment to ‘Driving innovation for a profitable and environmentally  sustainable Australian grains industry’. 

“The Corporation believes the Australian industry can become a global leader, linking science, technology and innovation for the benefit of our stakeholders and the wider community.

“But it can only do that if its plethora of industry voices and organisations  agree to end their long histories of non-cooperation and duplication  and come together for the common good of the industry.”  

Mr Enright said development of the Strategy by Pocknee and Associates Consulting had involved  22 grower workshops around Australia, 135 interviews, discussions with six focus groups, a Futures Forum with industry leaders and interviews with grains industry leaders ins the USA, Europe and Asia.    

The plan had identified widespread support for cultural and structural change in the Australian grains industry, generally prompted by dissatisfaction – even frustration – at the more than 130 organisations the industry supported and their seeming inability to work together  for the overall good.

The research also found acceptance of the inevitability  of change being pressed upon the industry by international market forces and the need to adapt  to that.

Mr Enright said the GRDC would continue to review  and change its processes, along the lines advocated for the whole  industry in the ‘Australian Grains Industry Strategy 2005-2025’, which had identified cases of fragmentation and duplication  in the national R&D effort.

With its its statutory  obligations to maximise the efficiency and efficacy of the investments it makes on behalf of its stakeholders – growers and the Federal Government – the GRDC could be expected to seek greater accountability from research agencies.

“Research must be done for the right reasons, and stakeholders must get a return on the funds they contribute,’ Mr Enright said.

“Performance criteria for everyone needs to be clear, and research must be measured by what it delivers to growers and the industry as a whole.”