View from the private sector: Trust and purpose

Global agriculture is facing many dynamic trends and emerging issues that present both challenges and incredible opportunities for evolution and growth. Key issues such as food security, consumer influence, biosecurity, labour shortage, water utilisation, climate change, deforestation, people talent, sustainability, trust in science/business/technology and smooth trade flow make just a short list of major drivers that require consideration, proactive investment, and decisive action now from many stakeholders to ensure industry success in the long term. The urgency and importance of these trends are different by country, and many trends and issues connect and converge. Developed countries, like Australia, can play a pivotal role in evolving quickly with these trends and leveraging our experience and learnings appropriately to developing nations. I will focus on three key areas and share how the private sector is viewing these in both Australia and developing nations, share examples of how these are being addressed in various countries, and offer suggestions for management of these issues in the future. I will share examples of private–public collaboration that can help address these trends, and touch on the important responsibility of the private sector in embracing Corporate Social Responsibility. Smooth trade flow of agricultural produce is essential to the development of all nations and in meeting global food security challenges. Influences on trade flow are diverse, including political drivers, industry direction, regulatory structures, and food chain stakeholders. Collaboration and transparency between key stakeholders are essential in managing future emerging trends that will impact trade flow. Biosecurity issues continue to impact agricultural production. Recent examples, such as fall armyworm across Asia and the industry response to this, serve as a good case study to assess the importance of multi-stakeholder cross-country collaboration for rapid response to these issues. Technology investment, development and acceptance are essential in agriculture to address current issues and capture future opportunities from within the sector. Technology partnerships with a clear alignment of objectives and a transparent regulatory framework are essential to attract required investment.