This paper provides an overview of first- and second- generation biofuels. First-generation biofuels are ethanol-derived from food crops such as grains and sugar cane, and biodiesel, which use feedstocks of vegetable oils and animal fats. The technologies for manufacturing first-generation...

Humanity is facing its greatest challenge. To produce 70% more food by 2050 without destroying the environment means doing much more with less. Partly due to the abundant food and record-low food prices achieved by the Green Revolution, overseas development assistance for agriculture dropped...

A sustainable strategy to nourish the planet and its people must also promote biodiversity conservation. This strategy will have to include reduction in land degradation and unsustainable overuse of fertilisers, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, and irrigation water. A case can be made for...

Forests are making major contributions to rural livelihoods in Australia and in many other countries of the Asia-Pacific region. These include direct economic returns from the harvest of both timber and non-timber forest products, and indirect contributions to other economic activity through...

Mining of energy resources and minerals is clearly the running down of a large but finite, and non-renewable, resource. It is important also to recognise the nonrenewable aspects of food production: in particular, net consumption of nutrients and soil as well as the direct and embodied...

Africa’s abundant mineral resources offer opportunities for its countries’ governments to work with mining companies so that minerals exploitation can benefit both company and country. Well-managed mineral exploitation can underpin broad-based sustainable growth and socioeconomic...

The Crawford Fund’s Annual Parliamentary Conference for 2012, ‘The Scramble for Natural Resources’, addressed a question of fundamental importance to Australia and to the international community: that is, how to feed, adequately, an extra 2 or 3 billion people within a few decades without...

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...

Millions of small farmers are reached commercially every day as they buy seeds and crop protection products, fertiliser, cell phones, machinery and tools, taking advantage of the science and research embodied in these products. The market for agricultural inputs is large, and the role of the...