Agrifood industries are facing challenges on a global scale, but innovative science and technology from CSIRO are making a difference. The new technology, revealed at AgCatalyst 2024, showcased by CSIRO, had many new opportunities for development.

AgCatalyst covered sustainability, future foods, soil and featured a living farm. The main theme of the 2024 event was helping shape a brighter and more sustainable future, in many ways.

One of the ways CSIRO is looking to do this is by transforming how farmers farm by 2050. The agriculture industry has had bumper crop productivity levels in recent years; however, it is also facing major challenges related to climate change, supply chain issues, workforce access and changing consumer preferences.

AgCatalyst showed how Australia needs to quickly change its way of farming to overcome these challenges and to meet 2050 sustainability and food security goals. But what does this look like? How do we ensure it is productive, resilient and sustainable?

A CSIRO report, in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, highlighted four evidence-based scenarios for farming systems in the future, including regional agriculture capitals, landscape stewardship, and climate change mitigation.

Part of this includes supporting Australia’s range of crops, which CSIRO’s scientists are helping to ensure are sustainable, productive and ready for the future.

This includes newly developed crop varieties that will be able to weather a changing climate, like drought-tolerant wheat and sustainable cotton that produces more and uses less resources. This also extends to supplementary feed crops for livestock, like Anameka Saltbush, a longer term solution for scarce food in droughts.

AgCatalyst also covered information about food waste. A third of all Australian-produced food goes to waste – 7.3 million tonnes. There is hope that food waste such as ‘ugly’ products, expired food, restaurant waste and by-products from manufacturing can be recycled into new products, unlocking $20 billion for the economy.

Vegetable waste can be turned into nutritious powders, aquaculture waste into animal feed and low-priced cuts of meat into protein powders, like Just Meat.  There is also a role for consumers to play, learning how to prepare and store food, meal planning, consideration of how long the food will last, and knowledge of the differences between a best before label and an expiry date.

Learning this is especially important, as increasing climate variability means that crops are facing continuous risk. Volatile conditions, such as droughts, can mean that farmers must make difficult decisions to support crops.

A new forecaster is helping to make those decisions easier. Farming Forecaster is keeping farmers informed on changing conditions on their farms. Farming Forecaster covers how fast the grass is growing, soil moisture levels, relevant weather conditions and livestock performance. It also gives real time updates on pasture conditions, to help farmers make decisions around buying and selling stock, breeding and water requirements. Covering all this, Farming Forecaster is the most advanced pasture forecast tool available for farmers.