In a little over a decade, the global population is expected to reach 8 billion. The task of feeding this growing population will become harder with rising natural resource constraints, declining or stagnant crop productivity, more frequent extreme weather events, and climate change. These...

The Sir John Crawford Memorial Address has been presented since 1985, in honour of the distinguished Australian civil servant, educator and agriculturalist in whose name the Crawford Fund was established. Sir John Crawford was a remarkable Australian who contributed at the highest levels, and...

By 2050, we face the challenge of feeding 50% more people within the finite and diminishing resources on the planet. Significant investment is going into the development of new crop varieties that will offer higher yields, greater pest resistance or better tolerance of adverse conditions. There...

Increasing population and consumption are placing unprecedented demands on agriculture and natural resources across the planet. Today, approximately a billion people are chronically malnourished while our agricultural systems are concurrently degrading land, water, biodiversity and climate on a...

Modern biology is generating revolutionary advances in genetic knowledge and our capacity to change the genetic make up of crops and livestock. Much of this new science is proprietary, owned both by the private sector and increasingly by advanced public sector researchers, leading to a concern...

Biotechnology can help confer traits in crops and livestock that enhance yields and quality and reduce costs, often with attendant benefits to the environment. In economic terms biotechnology offers the potential of substantially reducing the research time and costs of genetically enhancing...