THE FEDERAL government hopes a new study will allow grain growers and other industry stakeholders to better measure productivity growth and trends in the sector.
Agriculture Minister Tony Burke launched the $1.9 million Harvesting Productivity initiative last week, saying it would help determine productivity drivers and constraints in the grains industry.
The new study project will be undertaken by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) in conjunction with the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE).
GRDC has already spoken to ABARE about designing the key components of the study.
The project will start by holding workshops with selected growers from across Australia, who will be asked to divulge what they think are the drivers behind their on-farm decision making, productivity and innovation.
They will also be asked to disclose what they think are the constraints to innovation and productivity.
Other stakeholders, including agronomists, researchers and consultants, will be used in the study.
Speaking at the opening the 2009 Australian Grains Industry Conference (AGIC) in Melbourne last week, Mr Burke said improved productivity was the key to a competitive and sustainable grains industry, both at an individual farm level and across the industry.
Also speaking to delegates at the AGIC on Tuesday last week, GRDC managing director Peter Reading said local and global changes in the grains industry, had a major impact on the productivity of his organisation, because they designed programs with their research delivery partners, with five, 10 and 20 year delivery time-frames.
“We try and design these programs and modify them in an environment that is changing very, very rapidly,” he said.
“Investment, and government money and public funding of R&D in the area of productivity, has been declining since 1990.
“That’s global, and includes the US, and all the developed countries.
“But quite interestingly, China is increasing its rate of spend on R&D by 22pc per year.
“There’s quite a good message there that we need to be careful of.”
Mr Reading said productivity growth in Australia’s cropping sector, had slowed considerably.
He said from 1977-1994 growth in this sector was measured at 4.1pc, but dropped to 0.9pc from 1994-2006.
He said some of the suspected reasons for the decline were severe drought years, and delays in the introduction of Genetically Modified technologies, in broad acre farming.
The Grains Research Foundation Limited (GRFL) said they were pleased the GRDC/ABARE study would avoid speculation and help determine the fundamental drivers of productivity in the Australian grains industry, and why its growth had slowed in recent times.
GRFL director, Pete Mailler, said the research was important because it would help find
“We have a great model for R&D, one of the best in the world, but we just need to make sure we get the most out of it.”
GRDC chairman Keith Perrett said the GRDC board had recently discussed what they thought were some of the factors driving productivity, but he stressed, they needed the research to help determine the actual facts.
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