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Call for Top End farming research

News analysis Investing in agriculture in Australia's north could not only be a way to beat climate change, but could also help feed the planet, says a new report.

The report, titled A Food Secure World: How Australia Can Help, released by the Crawford Fund this week, calls for more investment in research that will help farmers internationally.

Co-author Dr Denis Blight says drought is one of the key reasons behind falling global food supplies. He says northern Australia is an attractive possible site for more farming because of its semi-arid tropical environment, which has a guaranteed wet season.

"If you can grow food there [in the Top End], then you bloody well should," says Blight, Executive Director of the Crawford Fund.

But he says previous attempts to farm the continent's north have failed due to a lack of knowledge, which is why research is badly needed.

Farming in this area is challenging because of its long dry season, poor soils and a lack of knowledge about tropical pest and diseases and appropriate crops for the area.

Helping African farmers

Blight says working out how to farm in the Top End could not only help Australia, but deliver the scientific knowledge that millions of smallholder crop and livestock producers in Africa need to increase their own productivity.

"The climatic conditions in northern Australia are very similar to those in the central strip of sub-Saharan Africa ... and that's where most of the world's poor people are," says Blight.

As well as farming the Top End, Blight says further investment is needed to find crops that are tolerant to drought and salinity, practices that make farms more resilient to uncertain climate, and biofuels that don't put pressure on food supplies.

"We should be investing more on research to look at conversion of woody plants and grasses into biofuels," he says.

Blight describes such internationally-relevant agricultural research as a "win-win situation".

"Not only do developing countries benefit from the output of the research but so does Australia."

GM crops and organic farming

The Crawford Fund report also calls for recognition of the role of crops developed using modern biotechnology in food security.

It says GM crops have boosted productivity in a number of countries, but their more widespread use is limited by public concerns and regulatory hurdles.

The report suggests this should change given such crops are becoming more widely cultivated without any demonstrated negative effects on the environment or human health.

Blight says negotiations are underway to make patented seeds available to poor farmers.

"We need to engage with the Monsanto's of the world to persuade them to make seeds available free under licence to the poorest of the poor," he says.

Whilst not mentioned in the Crawford Fund report, a number of reports from the United Nations have recently highlighted the importance of organic agriculture in helping poor farmers in an uncertain climate.

A new report from the UN Environment Program and the UN Conference on Trade And Development reports that organic farming has improved productivity, farm incomes and provided environmental benefits in drought-affected areas of east Africa.

UNEP executive director, Achim Steiner, says GM has its attractions but its promises have been hyped.

He says feeding more than 9 billion people by 2050 will require a range of creative solutions.

"There is no single panacea," he says. "It is not the transgenic revolution. It is not the organic revolution...there's no one right way."

He says organic farming is one "rational economic approach" for poor farmers who can't afford the cost of chemical inputs.

"Organic farming deserves as much scientific scrutiny and validation as any other element of an agricultural production strategy," says Steiner, who calls on Australian scientists to lead the world in the search for low-input farming systems.

Blight agrees that low-input agriculture is a key area for research, but describes organic agriculture as "simplistic".

"Organic agriculture has great appeal, including to both my children, but it's not going to solve the world's problems," he says.

Experts for the future

Regardless of what solutions Australia investigates to help feed a hungry world, Blight says the country will have to do something about the falling number of agricultural science graduates.

The report says that there is an estimated demand for graduates in excess of 2000 a year, but graduate completion rates are below 800 a year.

"Unless we can breed some new scientists, we're going to be in trouble," he says.

Blight suggests one way to attract young people to agricultural science is to highlight its role in "saving the world", and include study time in an international agricultural research centre.

"It makes it suddenly an exciting career - an exciting prospect," he says.