A keynote speaker at Grains Week 2006 in Canberra today says agriculture in Australia is about to go through a major wave of innovation.

The Chief of CSIRO Plant Industry, Dr Jeremy Burdon, told the conference that enormous developments in fundamental biology and the interlinking of biological and physical sciences would speed the application of innovative change.

“Agriculture is a highly significant contributor to Australia’s economic and social development with the direct farm gate value of agriculture contributing 3 per cent to GDP. Extension of the economic impact to include the food and beverage processing sector that is largely based on domestic produce sees GDP estimates rise to between 9 and 12 per cent”, Dr Burdon said.

“Even these figures under-estimate agriculture’s overall financial importance to the nation as its strong export focus currently accounts for approximately 25 per cent of Australia’s merchandise exports - around $26.1 billion in 2003/04”, he said. “In human terms, agriculture provides stewardship over approximately 75 per cent of the Australian continent and is a vital employer in rural areas”.

Dr Burdon said increasingly competitive international markets and the need to ensure the longterm viability of agricultural enterprises were posing future challenges.

“Meeting these challenges will require engagement by all sectors in the business chain. A continuing pipeline of innovative change charged by the application of modern science technologies will be a central and vital part of achieving those gains”, he said.

“Agribusiness is on the crest of a major wave of innovation as enormous developments in fundamental biology and the interlinking of biological and physical sciences come into play”.

“These developments are speeding the application of innovative change, redefining existing industries and creating new ones while other developments arising from broader synergies of biology, physics and mathematics are fundamentally reshaping management practices”.