Response to the Agricultural Competitiveness Issues Paper Background

Academy of Science, welcomes the opportunity to provide a response to the Agricultural Competitiveness Issues Paper. This submission focuses on the need for the White Paper to consider more deeply the role that agricultural research, development and extension (R,D&E) will play in enhancing the future competitiveness and profitability of Australian agriculture. Harnessing emerging scientific opportunities will help Australian agriculture to develop new practices, improved crops and livestock, and sustainable resources. Gains in these areas will increase the competitiveness of the industry, and allow it to meet the challenges it will face in the coming decades. Between 1953 and 1980, growth in agricultural R&D in Australia averaged 6.5 % per year (DAFF 2010), and this increase in investment led to increases in agricultural productivity (Mullen 2010). Since that time expenditure has essentially been static (Mullen 2010), growing by just 0.6 % per year since 1980 (DAFF 2010). Agricultural research intensity, which measures the investment in agricultural R&D as a percentage of GDP, grew strongly in the 1950s and 1960s to about 4-5 % of agricultural GDP, but has fallen to about 3 % in recent years. The lag time between research investment and realising productivity gains initially meant that this decline in agricultural R&D investment had little impact on productivity and competitiveness. This is because there was a pipeline of new practices and varieties, arising fro