2008 NUFFIELD CONTEMPORARY SCHOLARS CONFERENCE (CSC)

Innovative young farmers from around the world gathered in Melbourne in February 2008 to discuss the capacity of agriculture to meet the global demand for food over the next 10 to 20 years. Starting in Melbourne on Sunday February 24, the CSC included three days of visits to Victorian farming operations in the Mornington Peninsula, South Gippsland, central Victoria and the Goulburn Valley.

“Australia has some great initiatives within the Nuffield network, and as a farming destination we are doing a lot of innovative things; we had a lot to offer the visiting scholars,” Mr Jim Geltch (Nuffield Australia CEO) said. “We also secured major sponsorship for the conference from Bayer CropScience, a company that leads international agriculture in research and development.

The Contemporary Scholars Conference then joined the annual Nuffield Australia Autumn Tour and Innovative Farming Australia Conference, in Echuca on Friday February 29, which included returning Australian scholars providing an overview of their travels and research.

The conference gave participants an overview of global agriculture and trade issues, with presentations from successful agricultural business owners and managers.

A copy of the CSC itinerary can be downloaded via this link (Details of the Contemporary Scholarship winners are included in the intinerary).

The objective of the conference was to:

• Develop and enhance international networks
• Give participants an overview of global agricultural and trade issues
• Take the participants out of their comfort zone
• Present successful businesses and their owner/managers vision
• Showcase Australian agriculture and industries

The theme of the week was:

Has agriculture the capacity to meet societies’ demand for food over the next 10-20 years?

This conundrum was posed at the outset on the Sunday morning during the introduction period. Also outlined were the many impediments to achieving that outcome, eg:

• The oil crisis and its impact on agriculture, manifesting in sharply increased cost of inputs and an increased demand for agriculture to produce energy.
• Climate change and the constraints placed on agriculture as a result of political pressure.
  Availability of human capital to manage any upside in agriculture.
• Therefore, it can be answered that agriculture will not have the capacity to meet food demands over the next 10-20 years. However, because of these significant constraints, the supreme irony is that huge opportunities will be created for individual primary producers because of these very impediments.

An attempt was made to address these issues and discuss how constraints are impacting on agriculture as well as how individual businesses are capitalising on opportunities. At the end of the week Phil O'Callaghan (O’Callaghan Rural Management) outlined issues that primary producers will need to address to capture the opportunities flowing to agriculture:

• Setting business structures for the future?
• How to improve your resource efficiency?
• What are the KPIs for agriculture?

The following people also made presentations as part of the 2008 CSC:

• Ashby, Rod Free Range Pig Production (135 K pdf)
• Barfield, Judy Presentation notes answering the theme question (126 K pdf)
• Barfield, Judy Australian perspective on world agriculture/trade issues (1.75 MB pdf)
• Blackwell, John Irrigation's future (1.8 MB pdf)
• Brownhill, David Merrilong Pastorall Company – Changing tthe Family Farm (175 K pdf)
• Eckard, Dr Richar The Challenges and Opportunities for the Agriculture Sector under an Emissions Trading Scheme (850 K pdf)
• Finger, Lucy Irrigated agriculture R and D underpinning practice/change: hydrology research (7.8 MB)
• Goodwin, David Irrigation Research in Horticulture (10.15MB pdf)
• Hall, Rob What Research and Innovation can do for Industry (1.32 MB pdf)
• Hutchings, Tim Redefining best practice (916 K pdf)
• Lee, Dr Bruce National Research Flagships Program (3.4 MB)
• Leeman, Jason Adjustment through Water Trading (1.9 MB)
• Reading, Peter GRDC presentation (383 K)
• Smith Garry Water Management and Trading (1.6 MB)
• Suzuki Milton Brazilian Perspective on Global Agricultural/Trade Issues (4.3 MB)
• Tuckwell John European Union’s perspective on agricultural and trade issues (515 K)
• Wainio John 2008 U.S. Farm Bill: Where do we stand? (264 K)
• Williams David DPI Tatura - Our history and environment (9.54 MB)

CSC CONFERENCES:

2011 Contemporary Conference (CSC)

Held in Wellington, New Zealand

2010 Contemporary Conference (CSC)

Held in Washington DC and Pennsylvania USA.

2009 Contemporary Conference (CSC)

Held in London, UK.

2008 Contemporary Conference (CSC)

Held in Melbourne, Australia.

2007 Contemporary Conference (CSC)

Held in Calgary, Canada.

2006 Contemporary Conference (CSC)

Held in Utrecht, Netherlands.

TRIENNIAL CONFERENCES:

2011 International Conference

Held in Adelaide and Perth, Australia

2008 International Conference

Held in Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

2005 International Conference

Held in New Zealand. No information currently available.