Big gains in agricultural production have been underpinned in the last century by investment in research and development.

Whether it be drought resistant or disease resistant crops, more efficient water management or better animal husbandry, it needs also be married to protecting vulnerable animal species, maintaining the biodiversity of microbial life in soils and reducing polluting runoff.

The accelerating urbanisation of most countries is possible with the advances of R&D in agriculture and there needs to be more ways of sharing the technological discoveries to poorer regions of the world.

Image: Image: Shutterstock – eleonimages

Produced By: Roderick Chambers

Featured In Story: Dr Jenny Gordon, Former DFAT Chief Economist Member of the Australian International Agricultural Research Centre’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Advisory Panel and of the Asian Development Bank Institute’s Advisory Committee

First aired on The Wire, Tuesday 23 August 2022