Feeding the world’s growing population in the face of climate change will be the focus of the TropAg International Conference in Brisbane.
This year’s TropAg International Conference, hosted by the University of Queensland, has attracted over 1000 people from 53 nations.
Paul PG Gauthier, a UQ Professor of Protected Cropping, is one of six plenary speakers who will explore the science of protected farming as a strategy for mitigating the effects of climate change and supply chain disruption.
“Building a sustainable and reliable food production system is one of the biggest challenges facing the world. Climate change, natural disasters, digital disruption, population growth, and the pandemic all reinforce the need for innovation in the Agrifood sector in what is a rapidly changing landscape,” Professor Gauthier said.
Professor Gauthier stated that Australia might benefit greatly if it could grow out-of-season tropical and subtropical crops for the rest of the world.
“That’s really exciting and that is what protected cropping and vertical farming can bring. My priority is to empower the next generation of farmers with a focus on tropical and sub-tropical crops, which is an emerging industry with a high growth rate,” Professor Gauthier added.
UQ Professor Henrietta Marrie AM will speak about her work with the ARC Training Centre for Uniquely Australian Foods.
Professor Marrie will tell delegates that, while Australia’s bushfood business is expanding, not enough is being done to include Indigenous people in this market.
“In Australia, we need to treasure the knowledge system of Indigenous people and work at how to bring their food to the table in a way that exposes the varieties that we have in Australia and how it can be a part of everyone’s diet,” Professor Marrie said.
According to Professor Marrie, Traditional Australian foods were predicted to be a million-dollar market in the 1980s, and while those predictions were met, non-Indigenous individuals benefited the most.
Professor Marrie has received an ARC Discovery grant to investigate Indigenous ethnobotanical knowledge to support and promote First Nations economic self-sufficiency and sustainability.
The three-day conference agenda includes 240 presentations on four core themes: agribusiness, value chains and the bioeconomy, predictive agriculture, sustainable agrifood systems, healthy agriculture, and food for healthy communities.
Professor Matthew Morell, Conference Chair and Director of the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, stated that TropAg was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear from world-class scientists and industry leaders.
“Our scientists are at the forefront of the technologies that are changing the world and are making the most of revolutionary changes in plant breeding, protected environments, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, all of which will be necessary to provide for the changing world and increased demand for food,” Professor Morell said.
TropAg is hosted by the University of Queensland in collaboration with the Queensland Government‘s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.
The conference will be held in the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre from 31 October to 2 November 2022.
