AUSTRALIA is eyeing emerging opportunities in the food industry, establishing a new research centre to investigate new solutions across the value chain.
The Food Agility Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) is set to help the sector tackle digital transformation across the value chain for fresh and processed food. It will be supported with $162 million in cash and in-kind participant contributions.
CRC’s are not for profit organisations that bring researchers with industry and government together to collaborate on projects that are directed toward delivering economic benefits.
University of Technology Sydney has been appointed the lead research agency, which will be headed by chief executive Mike Briers.
He has worked as Industry Professor of IoT (internet of things ) at UTS and brings industry experience to the CRC as well, having co-founded agtech company The Yield and big data management company RoZetta.
“We want this to be applied and science driven,” Prof. Briers said, adding that the Food Agility CRC would be where IoT meets agriculture.
IoT can be used to create a web of interconnected devices, from harvesters to bins through to the production line, mapping yield, streamlining logistics and tracking production to improve efficiency and create traceability through the supply chain and to establish provenance at point of sale.
A raft of industry bodies, state governments and research institutes are signed up to participate in the Food Agility CRC. Prof. Briers said the cross-pollination of capabilities should provide ready opportunities for tangible results.
“There are some big things we can solve. Technology isn’t the issue for us, it’s identifying where the low hanging fruit is. We’re not about launching some perfect, expensive project.
“We are focused on justifying the value proposition for the investment in the CRC.”
Prof. Briers said solutions to many food sector challenges could be tweaked and rolled out for a range of industries.
“We are building to scale… Systems in one segment can deployed in others’at the moment it is duplicated
Prof Briers pointed to work the CRC is already doing with Houston’s Farm, a Tasmanian salad leaf supplier to major supermarkets, to improve the shelf life of its bagged products.
“The lettuce can’t be too wet, so we’re identifying in real time the optimal harvest time to maximise the product’s retail shelf life,” he said.
Increasing data collection with IoT and other digital technologies could help farmers cut a better deal for financial products like bank financing or insurance deals.
It’s like proving a safe driving record to a car insurer, the more and better information you can give them, the more you can prove your credentials,” Prof. Briers said.
The most recently report on the CRC program, which was initiated by the Commonwealth in 1990, was delivered in 2006. It found the CRCs outperformed the University sector two-to-one in terms of dollars spent and inventions, patents, or licences produced.
The Cotton CRC contributed to development and take-up of transgenic Bollgard II variety, which enabled a significant reduction in pesticide use. Cotton CRC claimed the cotton industry’s average chemical usage fell from 6.5 kilograms per hectare to 2kg/ha between 2000 and 2003.
The Sheep CRC’s e-sheep system, developed in the early 2000s, uses electronic tags, readers, and recording and measurement devices for management of commercial and stud flocks. It claimed the cost davings of up to $4.40 per animal for fine wool Merinos and $1.60 per animal for dual purpose wool/meat Merinos.
Department of Industry Innovation and Science rolls out farm research
Federal government is rolling out more than $150 million in funding for industry research and development funding and agricultural digital technology is taking centre stage.
Four new Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) have been created, taking the program’s list of bodies to 36.
A High Performance Soils CRC will receive $40m over 10 years, aimed at farmers to bridge the gap between soil science and critical on farm decision making. It will be backed with $137m in cash and in-kind participant contributions.
A Honey Bee CRC will receive $7m over five years, to link unique floral hive sites to product quality control processes and to help boost the industry’s marketability. It will be supported with $19m in cash and in-kind participant contributions
There are four other agriculture CRCs, with Pork, Sheep, Plant Biosecurity and Poultry.
The other CRC which was established in the latest round of funding is also relevant to the agricultural supply chain. The iMove CRC, will receive $55m over 10 years targeting new vehicle technologies to boost traffic, intermodal connections and freight operators. The funding will be matched with $179m in cash and in-kind participant contributions.