CQUniversity researcher Professor David Midmore has backed an assertion that rural research is at a cross roads and agrees urgent action is needed to avert an imminent threat to food production in Australia.

The assertion has come from Geoff Thomas, National President of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology (AIAST), who said this was a matter of national security.

Professor David Midmore

Professor Midmore, a member of the AIAST Queensland Executive, said the CQ region should get behind the push for adequate rural research spending.

Mr Thomas said Australia's rural RD&E effort is shrinking at the very time growers and rural industries need research to provide solutions to unprecedented production and environmental challenges.

"Investment in agricultural RD&E is the backbone of agricultural industry and has been a major factor in establishing Australia's global standing as a major producer of quality food.

"But that standing and our ability to feed a growing population is being put at threat by the rapidly shrinking financial and human resources committed to food production and environmental management in Australia.

"Given the scale and number of challenges facing Australian agriculture and horticulture in the areas of food security and safety, bio-security and environmental challenges ranging from climate change to natural resource management the issue of RD&E funding this poses a genuine threat to Australia's future.

"The need for research support of rural industries has never been higher yet the resources committed to this essential effort are being run down.

"Research in some of our most important food-producing industries has already fallen to critical levels.

"If we are to continue to be able to produce the food we need and generate export income in increasingly competitive world markets it is essential this trend be reversed as a matter of urgency."

The crisis in essential rural RD&E has prompted the AIAST to convene a workshop conference to raise awareness of the situation and develop a blue-print for the re-shaping and effective resourcing of Australia's agricultural RD&E

The two-day event, titled ‘The Future for Agricultural Research, Development and Extension in Australia', will be held in Canberra on Thursday and Friday, March 11 and 12. It will be attended by researchers, extension officers, farm advisers and industry and farm leaders.

Further information including the conference program and registration form is available on the AIAST website and can be downloaded by following this link.