Innovation Ag

How do we better get new research to farmers, to start-ups for commercialisation,  or to Ag industry bodies to build on, distribute and use? 

Should we be incorporating a diversity of skills and building teams from the beginning of research? 

How can universities and industry better share knowledge and skills? 

How do we focus on the trial and error of innovation in science or tech, without IP getting in the way?

Hosted by: Kirsten Diprose, Innovation Ag podcast host and Vic Hub Knowledge Broker.

Panellists:

• Natalie Collard – Chief Executive, Food and Fibre Great South Coast
• Simon Falkiner - Farmer and Director at Falkiner Ag
• Prof. Colin Barrow – lead at Deakin University's Bio Factory and Director for the Centre for Chemistry and Biotechnology.
• Sam Brown - Chief Executive, Agricultural Innovation Australia

This podcast has been created by the Victoria Drought Resilience Innovation and Adoption Hub and is funded through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

So, you’ve implemented change, well done! How do you know it was all worth it? 

This episode is the final from our current series on 'how to innovate' - and it's time to take stock. But really, that all comes down how you measure your success.

In the first episode, "What is innovation?", we looked at three key motivators: 

1) for growth and profit 
2) for climate resilience or consumer future-proofing 
3) for community building. 

And it turns out these key motivators are also quite useful as metrics of success.

So, in this episode hear how social and cultural innovations have helped to forge bush tucker markets and create employment pathways at Worn Gundidj, an Aboriginal Cooperative in south-west Victoria; we discover how regional collaborations have created fit-for-purpose research and innovation across the Mallee region of Victoria and; we learn some of the key numbers and strategic questions you should be asking when measuring the success of an innovation.

GUESTS:

Dylan Kelly & Peter Lyles, Horticulture, Worn Gundidj (based in Tower Hill and Warrnambool)

Rebecca Wells, Chief Executive of the Mallee Regional Innovation Centre (MRIC)

Matt Dalgleish – Agricultural market analyst at Episode 3

This podcast has been created by the Victoria Drought Resilience Innovation and Adoption Hub and is funded through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

Can you heat a hospital with wheat stubble? Or use chipped almond trees to improve your soil? These are some examples of circular economic trials that are underway in Australia at the moment. 

Arguably, never before has there been such an incentive to develop circular economies, with the costs of fertiliser, fuel and electricity all rising significantly over the past few years. 

But one of the big challenges in agriculture, is that we operate in linear economies, rather than in circular ones (i.e. most farmers buy inputs to produce outputs). 

Even still, new circular economies are emerging across multiple sectors, in part to address the problem of the high cost of inputs and also to address environmental and sustainability concerns.  

So, in this episode, we look at three very different circular economic solutions - where waste products are being re-used, recycled, or reprocessed for fertiliser, bio energy... and even water retention in soil. We look at circular economies from a local farm scale to regional initiatives (including heating a small Central Victorian hospital, with plant material waste). 

GUESTS: 

Neale Bennett – Almond grower in Merbein, Victoria (and participant in an Australian ‘Whole of Orchard Recycling’ study) 

Daryl Scherger – Victorian Bioenergy Network 

Dr Sara Hely – Director of Research at Riverine Plains (the Vic Hub’s NE Node) 

For more information visit our website. 

This podcast has been created by the Victoria Drought Resilience Innovation and Adoption Hub and is funded through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

 Wayne Schild's journey from paramedic to commercial farmer has taken guts, vision and plenty of curiosity. 

In this bonus episode, we're playing the extended interview with Wayne, who we spoke to in Episode 6 - 'Staying Operational While Innovating'.  

Wayne grows garlic in Victoria's Western districts where farmers mainly produce sheep and wool.

It's been a huge journey for his business called Grange Garlic, from the lows of suffering major crop losses, to the highs of finding a way to mechanize his operations - allowing the business to move from artisan to commercial. 

"I have no claim or credentials, only that I wanted to be a farmer and I wanted to do something that mattered. I simply have followed the path of authenticity and have refused to go to market with a substandard product. All other ways of processing garlic, in my view, destroy the natural attributes of what garlic has. Everyone knows garlic for its flavour and aroma."

- Wayne Schild, Managing Director, Grange Garlic Pty Ltd

This podcast has been created by the Victoria Drought Resilience Innovation and Adoption Hub and is funded through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

Rainfall levels for many parts of Australia haven’t recovered since the devastating millennium drought.  Many rural communities are having to face a reality of landscapes and climate that have already changed, and are likely to continue to do so. So, what makes an effective climate adaptation initiative? 

Following on from the previous episode about creating innovation systems on a national or regional scale, this episode looks at how innovation systems can function on a much smaller, local scale. We examine local innovation systems, through the lens of addressing the challenges of climate change in agriculture and in rural communities. 

How are local water corporations, local government, scientists and community groups working together to offer effective solutions to drought? How so we make sure all the voices are heard, so that climate adaptation is not ‘top down’ but more grassroots in its design? 

This episode draws from the speakers held at a recent Vic Drought and Innovation Hub Think Tank Event, held in Bendigo: “Are We Drought Ready?” Exploring local adaptation  

Hear from: 

• Prof. Lauren Rickards, Chair of Climate Change Adaptation, La Trobe University 

• Caroline Welsh Deputy Chair, GWMWater, member of the Victorian Agriculture Climate Change Council and the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund Consultative Committee. 

• Damian Wells, Managing Director at Coliban Water 

• Prof Rebecca Lester, Freshwater Ecologist and Director of the Centre for Regional and Rural Futures, Deakin University 

• Professor Richard Eckard, Professor of Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Melbourne and Director of the Primary Industries Climate Change Centre 

• Dona Cayetana, Community and Partnerships Program Manager, DEECA (Department of Energy Environment and Climate Action) 

• Cr Jennifer Alden, Deputy Mayor at the City of Greater Bendigo 

View the Vic Hub’s latest research and resources on climate adaptation here. 

Listen to Dr Rob Faggian, Associate Professor of Climate Change Adaptation at Deakin University speak about  climate modelling for agriculture.


The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
AR6 Synthesis Report (SYR)

Tati Tati Kaiejin - Resources

This podcast has been created by the Victoria Drought Resilience Innovation and Adoption Hub and is funded through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

What kind of “innovation systems” do we currently have for Australian agriculture?  

Well, according to a recent report commissioned by the Federal Government, it could be a lot better.  

The report found that while Australia’s agriculture research is internationally renowned and individual farmers are good at adopting new practices, knowledge is often siloed.  

Essentially, agricultural innovation in Australia was not designed to operate as a cohesive system, rather it’s made up of multiple institutions and organizations which have developed over time for various locations and commodities.  

So how do we change this?  

In this episode, we explore how we can work strategically to build an effective “innovation system”. From smart specialization, greater private sector participation to rethinking our water use, there is an opportunity to grow the total funding pool for Australian agriculture and be a global leader. 

GUESTS

Nicola Pero - CEO, Food and Fibre Gippsland  

David Downie – Strategic Advisor in Regional Development, Deakin University  

 
RESEARCH
Agricultural Innovation — A National Approach to Grow Australia’s Future Summary report March 2019

What is Smart Specialisation - European Commission

Global Agriculture Leadership Initiative - Australian Government, The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

This podcast has been created by the Victoria Drought Resilience Innovation and Adoption Hub and is funded through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

Dr Robert Faggian doesn't want research gathering dust, or government talk fests with no action.

So, in his keynote address at a recent event we hosted in Bendigo, Victoria, Rob looks at local government responses to climate adaptation. He also outlines some of his own research - which uses  climate modelling -  to empower action in agriculture.

This is a short bonus episode from the Vic Drought and Innovation Hub's 2023  Think Tank event, 'Are we drought ready?'.


GUESTS

Dr. Robert Faggian, an Associate Professor of Climate Change Adaptation at Deakin University, is a recognized expert in the field of climate change adaptation. With a strong background in biology and agricultural science, his work focuses on developing practical strategies to respond to the challenges of climate change, with a particular emphasis on sustainable regional development. He has led numerous successful local and international research projects on climate adaptation, water management, and agricultural production, and published extensively on his findings. Dr. Faggian is an engaging and informative speaker who is dedicated to sharing his expertise with the public. 

RESOURCES

IPCC Report, 2023

This podcast has been created by the Victoria Drought Resilience Innovation and Adoption Hub and is funded through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

So far we’ve heard a lot about innovation in ag – about what it is, about considerations to factor into the decision-making process and we’ve also heard stories about how others have gone about funding a new tool, practice, trial or project.  

So, now we're ready to innovate, right?  

Well hang on a minute, because first we need to talk about one of the biggest barriers to changing systems or practices.  And that is... you generally have to keep your operations going while you do it.  

This episode we’ll hear stories of people who have already navigated this process, such as Wayne Schild - the founder and owner of his family business, Grange Garlic, located near Hamilton in Victoria's western districts - a place famous for sheep, NOT garlic. But as you'll soon find out, Wayne is not one for doing things.... the way they've always been done. 

We also hear from  Dr Tim Clune. He's a Senior Lecturer at the La Trobe University Business School and leads the agribusiness major. 

Meanwhile, Emma Coath, managing director of Rocket Seeder, an accelerator for early stage food and ag startups provides her insights into some common hurdles faced by start ups and how to get around them.

This podcast has been created by the Victoria Drought Resilience Innovation and Adoption Hub and is funded through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

There are so many digital platforms out there, promising to count your cows, measure your soil carbon and do your finances. So how do know which data collecting applications are going to be most useful? From GPS-driven tractors, online auctions, weather and climate tracking apps to soil sensors, there is an increasing amount of data available to farmers and agribusiness. But are we actually using this data to the best effect? Data can unlock new opportunities, from greater market access to better knowledge about crops and pasture that can lead to higher productivity and better environmental outcomes.  

However, research also shows there’s significant mistrust amongst farmers about the collection and sharing of data. And it’s these concerns which inhibit technology adoption. A lack of data integration can also turn people away (no one wants to use several digital applications, that don’t ‘speak to each other’) So how do we ensure our data is being managed correctly and effectively? Also, what data should we be collecting NOW to be ready to access future opportunities? 

Guests:  

Dave Henry, Chief Research Scientist/ Research Leader, Digital Agriculture, CSIRO 

A Chief Research Scientist at Australia’s national science agency CSIRO, Dr David Henry currently leads the Climate Smart Agriculture Group within CSIRO’s Agriculture & Food Business Unit. Spread across five Australian states, the team has an innovative focus on Climate Adaptation and Sustainability Assessment and Metrics. 

Dwain Duxson,  Founder of Farm Tender 

Dwain started Farm Tender 11 years ago and it has evolved into an online Marketplace for Ag with over 65,000 member and throughput of $100 million plus in total sales www.farmtender.com.au   

He started Farm Tender while he was still running mixed farming operations with his family at Marnoo in Victoria’s Wimmera district. 

Jessi Henneken, Research Scientist, Agriculture Victoria Research 

Jessi is a research scientist with Agriculture Victoria Research (AVR).
She is currently working on two projects: a detection study on grapevine phylloxera and the Smart Hives project.  She is excited about AVR’s research in integrated pest management, which aims to develop more sustainable and environmentally friendly crop protection practices. 

 RESEARCH  
Accelerating Precision to Decision Agriculture | CRDC
Australian Farm Data Code
Agricultural Data Integration Project

This podcast has been created by the Victoria Drought Resilience Innovation and Adoption Hub and is funded through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

In this bonus episode, we bring you the extended interview from Christine Pitt, the Founder and Managing Director of Farmers to Founders.  Christine was in Episode 03: Finding Funding & Building Networks.

Christine Pitt, Farmers 2 Founders
Christine is a globally recognised thought leader, investor and entrepreneur in the ag+food tech ecosystem. She has a particular interest in building globally networked agrifood ecosystems and creating new business models for raising funds to invest in disruptive innovation across the agrifood value chain. Her passion is to make a positive impact in the areas of sustainability, human health & wellbeing, food waste, food security, and creating transparent and ethical agrifood businesses and value chains. 
Christine holds a Bachelor of Science, a Masters of Health Administration, and a Doctor of Business Administration in Innovation & Entrepreneurship.   

This podcast has been created by the Victoria Drought Resilience Innovation and Adoption Hub and is funded through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.