23 September 2009
A National AgriFood Conference in Sydney will hear that the world demand for food and fibre will double within a single lifetime, eclipsing climate change as the world's next great challenge.
The conference, hosted by AgriFood Skills Australia, will explore this worrying scenario as well as the jobs crisis threatening Australia at its national conference in Sydney, starting tomorrow morning (Thursday 24 September) before a broad cross section of the agrifood industry, including rural industries, food, meat, seafood and training.
This is the fourth such conference, seeking to examine the way forward for an agrifood industry that currently generates $208 billion a year to the economy - and which has in place a flexible, responsive and high-quality vocational education and training system that can provide job-ready people with the capability to deliver to changing industry and market expectations.
AgriFood CEO Arthur Blewitt said the agrifood industry looked for better outcomes from the national training system, and the availability of skilled and well trained workers was one impediment to the agrifood industry's continued development and growth. These were crucial to run and operate increasingly sophisticated and innovative enterprises, whose success depended on competing globally and complying with the domestic and international regulation in doing this.
Tomorrow's conference will include a 'Regional Jobs Summit' to explore how regional communities must work together to provide sustainable industries and attract workers. This debate will feature the Narrabri Mayor Robyn Faber, NSW Minerals Council's Sue-Ern Tan, TESA Mining's Sally Taylor and AgriFood CEO Arthur Blewitt.
The director of the CSIRO Sustainability Agriculture Flagship, Dr Peter Carberry, will unfold a view of food resources that dwarfs the world's climate change crisis - Dr Carberry says most people will have grown up and gone about their working lives while the world's ability to meet its food and fibre needs in aggregate was largely taken for granted.
However, world hunger - a persistent failure of humanity - was usually viewed as a problem of development, distribution and equity of access - not one of global demand outstripping the ability of the world's natural resources to meet global demands for food, feed, fibre and perhaps fuel. Agricultural research aimed at productivity gains was often seen as a matter of private interest - not global need.
The world may need to roughly double its food and fibre production between 2010 and 2050. This increased demand is built up from growth in world population, growth in per capita demand and shifts in diet composition associated with economic development and the conversion of agricultural biomass to bioenergy.
The CEO of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, Kate Carnell will provide an assessment of the broad business, production and opportunities of the food processing sector and the impediments restraining its growth and performance. This will give an indication of broad skills and workforce needs around technology, marketing, biosecurity and regulatory compliance, and a chance to promote the industry and its job and career opportunities in Australia and internationally. Ms Carnell is the conference keynote speaker, indicating the degree of importance of declining world food production and rising population growth. Australian farmers and food producers currently feed 60 million people.
Dr Carberry said that during the Green Revolution of the 60s, 70s and 80s food production more than doubled when new agricultural technologies were combined with expanded agricultural inputs, particularly land, irrigation water, energy for mechanisation and mineral fertilisers. The 21st Century Agricultural Revolution was going to have to repeat this feat, but this time with much greater constraints in terms of expansion of farming land, irrigation, energy and nutrients - and it is going to have to be done while reducing the greenhouse gas load on the global atmosphere and in the context of uncertainty generated by the prospects for climate change. Is this the Perfect Storm for agriculture?
Mr Blewitt said much of the training to maintain skill levels needed to be done on the job in cooperation with training organisations equipped with first-rate teachers who have the capacity to respond to changing industry requirements. "This is a key challenge for training organisations: AgriFood's focus is on working with training providers on the implementation and support of industry-driven training products that produce people equipped to do current and emerging jobs," Mr Blewitt said.
"However, this depends on attracting and retaining capable workers to work and live in the regions, which is critical to the future growth and success of the agrifood industry, as the majority of its workforce is based in regional Australia."
Marketing specialist Allan Bonsall will outline a radical new shift in the way VET (vocational education and training) is marketed and perceived - developed by the federal, state and territory governments. Mr Bonsall said there was likely to be a "re-positioning" of VET to counter a lack of understanding by the general community.
The agrifood industry in Australia continues to be a key export earner for Australia and recently had been one of the only industries - despite the global financial downturn - to continue to grow its exports and production. The conference was 'a signature event' in considering the new thinking, practice and case studies to underpin the industry's continued innovation and growth for the future.
For the National AgriFood Conference web page go to: http://www.agrifoodskills.net.au/
MEDIA ORGANISATIONS: are invited to attend opening sessions of the conference at the Dockside Convention Centre, The Balcony Level, Cockle Bay Wharf, Darling Park. For information or to arrange interviews contact:
Peter Clack
AgriFood Skills Australia
02 6163 7228
0418 978 090
peter.clack@agrifoodskills.net.au
