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Monday, 16 May 2016

Innovation lies at the core of Indo-Pacific agricultural production and food security.  Innovative practices from battery operated plasma guns to break the cycle of mould growing on food, to three dimensional vertical farming hubs harnessing natural energy and minimising land use, were outlined at the In the Zone 2016: Feeding the zone forum in Jakarta today.

Speakers from across the zone addressed the issue of innovation in short presentations highlighting the exciting activities underway to meet the challenge of feeding a growing regional middle-class population, climate change and the rapid urbanisation of land.

Hashtag food security movement to inspire youth

Indonesian actress and independent filmmaker Chelsea Islan , 20, said she had hardly thought about food security and what it meant for young people, but when confronted with the information and an invitation to inspire youth she embraced it.

Ms Islan led the presentations with a social media challenge to keep the conversation alive on social media through the creation of hashtags such as #planyourshopping and #dontwastefood, to highlight the issues on a medium familiar to youth.

She also encouraged delegates to know where their food came from and to pay a fair price  when buying fresh produce to ensure farmers were fairly compensated for their costs and effort.

Communities connect in urban gardens

Social media communities have reclaimed run-down and unused urban land in Indonesia for farming, in a social movement that has unlocked innovative and creative opportunities to address food production and community connectivity, according to architect and designer Sigit Kusumawijaya.

He said urban farming ‘Indonesia Berkebun’ had become a social movement across the country opening up new places for children to play, where people could connect and food could be grown.

Plasma gun and bio-security measures to stop food wastage

Scientists were researching a battery-operated, household-use plasma ‘gun’ in their efforts to minimise food waste, according to Dr Kirsty Bayliss, Plant Pathologist and Academic Chair of Plant Biosecurity Program at Murdoch University.

The plasma gun would spray plasma over food to trap its freshness and reduce the growth of mould, causing it to perish quickly.  Dr Bayliss said the device was currently being tested on avocadoes and showing positive results.

Dr Bayliss’ research focuses on chemical-free methods to control the mould, so that more food was available for consumption.  She said consumers did not want food that had been treated with pesticides and so researchers had discovered the use of plasma as a chemical-free alternative.

Dr Bayliss challenged the notion that the zone needed to grow more food and said instead the region needed to stop wasting the food it currently produced.

“Current estimates say we need to increase food production by 70 per cent to meet the food requirements of the world population in 2050. I challenge that, and argue that given we waste anywhere from 30-50 per cent of all food, we actually already produce enough to eat,” Dr Bayliss said.

“The challenge is to reduce food waste, particularly losses of fresh fruit and vegetables.”

She emphasised the importance of biosecurity in underpinning food security in the region.

“Bio- security is the protection of our plants and animals, especially our agricultural systems, our economy and our environment from pests.  Bio-secuity is essential from farm to fork,” she said citing examples of crops being wiped out entirely when new diseases infiltrate borders.

Increasing bio-security measures and understanding their significance in the role of preserving food crops, rather than their destruction, essentially meant no more food was needed, just better protection for current yields.

“So if we want to increase supply and secure our markets then we need bio-security.”

Rice revolution for zone

Rice, the staple food in Asia, will continue to feed the region following research and innovation which has boosted yields and introduced hardy varieties which can be grown in any condition, according to Dr Yoichiro Kato, Rainfed Lowland Agronomist for South East Asia and Drought & Submergence Workgroup Leader in IFAD-CURE, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)

Dr Kato highlighted the tight link between rice and culture and saying the consumption of rice in the region varied from 57kg per annum per capita in Japan to 228kg per annum per capita in Myanmar.

He said the mission of the IRRI was to reduce poverty and hunger and increase environmental sustainability through dynamic rice science, to meet the ever increasing food needs of the region.

The IRRI research efforts had already increased rice yields by 11.2 per cent, created totally new short grain rice varieties resistant to erosion and enabled three crops per year to be grown irrespective of weather.  He said rice was the only food crop that could adapt to  flood or drought environmental conditions.

IP has changed the face of innovation and food production

Winthrop Professor Michael Blakeney , of The University of Western Australia, highlighted the issue of climate change in the race for agricultural innovation and said researchers were exploring the opportunity of farmers to innovate and apply global learning into local conditions.

He identified two approaches in how this could happen – either through a top down approach where large organisations developed the technology and then passed it down to farmers; or a bottom up model where farmers innovated and shared their knowledge with each other.

He saw opportunity for a combination of both, recognising the need to adapt global solutions to local conditions.

Professor Blakeney said local knowledge was an under-utilised resource in the fight against climate change.

“This knowledge is relevant both to farmers in marginal areas and those engaging in conventional agriculture. Thus it is relevant to farmers both in Indonesia and Australia.”

He said climate change was a challenge for crop development, pests, and land degradation.

He said the advent of ‘intellectual property’ (IP) rather than free information had changed the way in which technology and knowledge were transferred. The introduction of patenting was an example of IP giving rise to more innovative plant breeding, and knowledge of DNA technology had made patenting of gene sequencing possible.

3D vertical farming technique set to revolutionise Asian food production

An innovative urban farming technique in Singapore has reduced water and energy consumption, increased yield and introduced the terms ‘farming in the third dimension’ and ‘vertical production’ into the agricultural vocabulary.

Responding to the problems of land unavailability, rising energy prices and young people rejecting farming as a viable occupation, the internationally award-winning farm concept could change the face of farming in Asia, according to Dr Ngiam Tong Tau, Chairman, Sky Urban Solutions.

Dr Tau said the innovations yielded 10 times more produce than traditional farming, used 95 per cent less water and energy and costed 5c/kg of vegetables compared to between $3-6/kg in current approaches.

“In 1960 Singapore had 10,000 hectares of farmland but now there are only 608 hectares and so it is imperative to maximise the use of land,” he said.

The urban farm concept maximises landuse tenfold, through a series of nine metre A-frame towers with plantar boxes which are hydraulically rotated throughout 16 hours, capturing natural sunshine when at the top and being watered when they rotate to the bottom.  Up to 1500 plants can be grown in each tower.

“That’s 454 plants per square meter, which is 10 times more than on the ground,” Dr Tau said.

He said rainwater was captured and used in the system and there was no run off unlike traditional farming.  “We use 12 litres of water per kilogram of vegetables, while in the field they use 20-30 times more water because of the run off.”

Although labour is reduced by up to 75 per cent through this automated farming system, the farm is designed for ergonomic harvesting which appeals to an older demographic, rather than the young people who are increasingly seeking employment in different sectors.

“Because the planting is done in the air and the plantar boxes can be moved, then harvesting is very ergonomic and elderly people can work in our farms,” Dr Tau said.

“Our primary motivation was to create a production space and lower costs, it is not a new idea, many have tried it but it was too expensive. So our design had to be commercially viable,” he said. “So we harnessed natural energy to reduce the cost of energy.  We use sunlight and we collect rainwater – enough for our farming operations.”

“We reuse, reduce and recycle as we wanted our farm to have a low carbon footprint.”

He said the future potential of the system could see these farming units being built in building facades, carparks, in the desert or even floating on water.

Data and simulation will create certainty for mining and agriculture production

Mining and agriculture may seem unlikely cousins, but the two share similar challenges and could learn from each other especially in the area of technology and automation, according to Dr Andrew Shook, General Manager of Future Business Technology at Rio Tinto,

“Both mining and agriculture are fundamental to human needs, extracting wealth from earth, while minimising impact, safety is critically important for both with mining and agriculture having been two of the most hazardous industries. We are ancient industries that are both undergoing rapid technological change,” Dr Shook said.

He said Rio Tinto’s Centre for Mine Automation at the University of Sydney was a component of the Australian Centre for Field Robotics which was developing robotic applications for mining as well as agriculture.

“One of the challenges that both mining and agriculture face with these new automation technologies is that the manufacturers do not want to connect their equipment together,” Dr Shook said.

Unlike the computer industry where a USB mouse can plug into any brand of computer, other industries, including agriculture and mining, were more competitive and less open to creating inter-operable, useable systems and machinery.

“The pay off of connecting equipment is very, very large as it is about defeating an enemy of both mining and agriculture, which is uncertainty. This uncertainty means that when we are carrying out our operations we are playing a game of chess where we can’t see the board and we don’t know the rules.

“Uncertainty raises two questions,” he said. “What’s happening now, and what will happen if I do something different?”

The answers to these questions would mean existing resources could be targeted and become more efficient.

“What comes from the sky and what’s in the ground are things that neither farmers nor miners can control, we can only control what we do about it.”

Dr Shook said technology using data and simulation were important in responding to changing times and addressing uncertainty.

“We all need to become software developers and simulate into the future, then we can carry out the best possible decisions using data and simulation,” he said.

“Personally I think it’s an incredibly tantalising opportunity and these tools will be as important to mining as trucks are now.  The future will be able to take all this information and link sensors together to calculate and tell us the effect of changes.  These are huge opportunities, which will result in significant change.  I don’t know how this is being transferred in agriculture but I see there is a role for government to assist in opening these opportunities.”

Media references

Sonia Nolan, Media Manager, In the Zone 2016

M:  +61 (0) 401 034 103  E: [email protected] W: www.zone.uwa.edu.au

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