Agricultural innovation, R&D, and the environment

Authors: Dr J Passioura, CSIRO Land & Water

Broadacre agriculture in Australia has changed enormously over the last few decades. Its productivity has been increasing by about 30% per decade, while its environmental viability has also been increasing markedly. This story is rarely told in the urban press. The innovations behind it are a complex blend of formal research and farmers' ingenuity and motivation, especially in relation to making good use of imported technology and realistic benchmarks. The nature of these innovations poses questions about the way that problem-solving biological research is generally organised.

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