CSIRO's mission to solve biggest ag issues with practical science

The CSIRO missions will involve large scale, major scientific and collaborative research initiatives, with a focus on outcomes that lead to positive impacts.

CSIRO agriculture and food deputy director Michael Robertson said most of the issues facing the industry could be placed within the three categories the missions focused on: drought resilience, the future of protein and growing export markets.

Dr Robertson said the missions had a "practical focus" and aimed to make a tangible difference for farmers across the country.

"These missions are very much aimed at solving problems that we are facing here and now," Dr Robertson said.

"That means taking a lot of stuff we already have currently under development and quickly applying it at scale.

"We'll still have half an eye on new or under development science to solve problems where there isn't an obvious solution."

Water, or the lack of it, is the biggest challenge facing farmers, but unfortunately the CSIRO doesn't have "any magic to make it rain more".

The drought resilience mission revolves around trying to make do with less rain and a less predictable climate, or "helping the farm sector to be more resilient to the ups and downs".

Once again, the focus is on practicability.

The CSIRO has already agreed to work with the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) to providing more up-to-date localised climate data and weather forecasts to help farmers with their decision making.

"Many farms in Australia are 10 kilometres away from the official BOM weather station, and every farmer will tell you their place is different to where the BOM station is based," Dr Robertson said.

There's work on irrigation projects that do more with less, and a big focus on farm management, such as helping graziers make more confident decisions about when to destock and restock.

The CSIRO is also working with insurance companies to help design attractive forms of insurance that will cover losses in production.

"That type of insurance hasn't been taken up widely in Australia for a range of reasons," Dr Robertson said.

"It would encourage people to take more educated risks around farming, knowing you've got a back stop in the form of an insurance policy if the season doesn't go the way they thought."

Future of protein

In the last 15 years, demand for protein exports has grown by 40 per cent, which has been driven by Asia's rising middle class and the increased use of plant-based proteins as feed in the pork, poultry and aquaculture industries.

There are "huge opportunities" for Australia to export valued-added protein, which demands a higher market price.

"A fair bit of the grain legumes produced in Australia are used for stock feed domestically, which is a pretty low value use for grain," Dr Robertson said.

"We could take grain, modify its genetic make up so it produces more protein or give it a high-quality composition, which is very achievable.

"Then we could export what was a cheap commodity as a higher value form of protein that has all sorts of end uses."

There are also opportunities to supply the new forms of protein needed to fuel the growing interest in plant-based meat.

"This all has the potential to deliver prices to Australian grain grower which are much better than what they get at the moment," Dr Robertson said.

"There are benefits all the way along the supply chain."

It may raise a few eyebrows to hear the CSIRO is working on growing Australia's export markets, something usually left to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Department of Agriculture.

But it's those government departments the CSIRO will partner with to modernise the regulation system, much of which is still paper based.

Dr Robertson said digital technology could help with the modernisation agenda by automating data collection, removing the duplication of information that plagues the system and reduce its complexity.

"It's not easy for an exporter to get a product to market," Dr Robertson said.

"When we're trying to enter a new market, that country has to have trust our systems.

"They need to know what they're buying is safe, there's no residual pesticides and that it comes from where it says it does."

There are also advances being made in traceability, which will help tap into the growing conscious-consumer market and stop fake Aussie products from hitting the shelves - something that has become a concern for luxury goods producers, such as wine makers.

"There's clever science we're working on to basically look at a product - be it in a supermarket or wholesale - and quickly tell where it's from based off its chemical composition or genetic composition," Dr Robertson said.