Slowly but surely money is commencing to flow back into agricultural research.
Even in Australia several large amounts have gone to both the universities of Sydney and Adelaide, yet government funds generally are still being restricted.
The EC is slowly moving funds into agriculture in its own countries. See the following article -
The European Commission has earmarked a fund of €4.5bn to spend on agricultural research between 2014-2020 to boost innovation and crop science.
A new European partnership for research and innovation has already been put in place, bringing together representatives from the scientific and farming communities and forming the basis of a true strategy for sustainable increase in agricultural production.
According to Georg Hausler, senior civil servant in Commissioner Dacian Ciolos's cabinet, the link between science and farming was broken, partly due to consumers' fear of genetic modification.
"Farmers are asking for innovation and are unable to get it. It's investment in seeds and innovation that's needed."
Farmers in eastern European countries in particular had tremendous opportunities to increase productivity, simply through improved knowledge transfer on best practice and farming methods, added Mr Hausler. "There is huge potential to increase production through better techniques and crop science."
Will we see a corresponding move of more $$$ into R and D for agriculture in Australia?
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