A CONFERENCE that merges both the research and development side of agriculture with political ties has attracted the brightest minds in the rural sector.
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Charles Sturt University student, Tom Williams, of the Graham Centre in Wagga attended the Crawford Fund’s annual conference at Parliament House earlier this month.
“It was a full house at Parliament House, there would have been around 200 to 300 people in the auditorium,” he said.
He said the focus was to shine a light on those people who are at the earlier stages of their career.
It was a full house at Parliament House, there would have been around 200 to 300 people in the auditorium.
- Tom Williams
The big topic on the table at the Canberra event was how to tackle the challenge of increased global food security in less developed countries.
Mr Williams, a PhD student was one of four PhD students from the Graham Centre who attended the two-day Conference.
He said some of the main talking points were machine learning, solving complex problems with simple ‘big data’ solutions, and how agriculture still has some catching up to do before the value of big data is truly recognised.
“The Crawford Fund Conference draws many delegates from different political and research backgrounds. It is here you realise there are a great number of people working in research for development and food security.”
“Their passion and knowledge in these areas was evident in every presentation and this exposure to a great group of researchers in Australia working in international agriculture development is something I appreciated.” Mr Williams said take-home message was the importance important to focusing on wholesome and nutritive food security in agricultural research, rather than just total production.
“The Conference keynote speaker Dr Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, who is the vice president for Country Support, Policy, and Delivery of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, argued that focusing on total production is not the best the way to achieve true food security.
“Dr Sibanda used compelling case-studies that highlighted a need to focus on wholesome, balanced nutrition when attempting to increase on-farm production, and encouraged collaboration between experts in agriculture, nutrition and social sciences to better achieve food security goals,” Mr Williams said.