The new head of the CSIRO knows exactly what it's like to have dry, thirsty dams.

Dr Larry Marshall grew up working on farms and his family run a property in drought-affected Queensland.

It's why he isn't afraid to talk about what he describes as an 'out-there' vision for agricultural research, on top of what's already being done at the premier science organisation. Listen Duration: 10 minutes 55 seconds 10 m Listen Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. New CSIRO head to make agricultural research big priority ( Lucy Barbour ) Download 5 MB

He's interested in the development of technology that would make it easier for farmers to dowse or divine for water on their properties.

"I've seen people do this with close to 80 per cent accuracy and I've no idea how they do it," he said.

"When I see that as a scientist, it makes me question, 'is there instrumentality that we could create that would enable a machine to find that water?'

"I've always wondered whether there's something in the electromagnetic field, or gravitation anomaly."

Dr Marshall believes the CSIRO can 'push the envelope' with such projects and contribute to improving agricultural productivity.

"Remember our mission fundamentally is to do whatever we can in terms of technology and our support for the land, to enable our farmers to be globally competitive," he said.

"If you look at what we've done already, coming up with better ways to manage water to quantify, for example, the project in the Murray Darling Basin exactly where the water it is, how it can be extracted and the economic statements and logistics of that. I think we need to do more of that and we are.

"We're across many other water deposits now both in Australia and globally."

His passion for agriculture began as a child, when he spent his summers working on his grandparent's farm in central New South Wales.

"My cousin is on a cattle property in northern Queensland and his life is literally a battle for water and I'm very familiar with his pain. They have a party every time it rains more than five millimetres.

"To us in the city, that's not very much. But if you're on the land, depending on grass to feed your cattle, it's an incredibly scarce and valuable resource."

For the past 25 years, Dr Marshall has worked as a venture capitalist in the United States and he expects investment in agricultural research will increase.

"For the last 10 years, venture has had absolutely zero interest in the land and the obsession has been in the internet," he explained.

"What's interesting to me is that in the last year, the top tier US venture capitalists, the people at the very peak of the pyramid who lend the trends, they've started asking me and others about agriculture.

"They've started to wake up to the fact that there's a huge global problem if we don't figure out how to be more efficient in producing food to keep up with the earth's growing population.

"So my prediction is that in the next 10 years, a lot of that venture money is going to get redeployed because, after all, how many times can we reinvent the internet?

"That money will get redeployed to solve real world problems on the land and I think CSIRO is in an amazing position to benefit from that and to capitalise on that."