2017 Conference

Our 2017 Event

The Crawford Fund’s annual conference holds a key place in the development and food security calendar in Australia. For more than two decades we have successfully brought into focus an issue worthy of global and Australian attention. This year was no exception.

Titled ‘Transforming Lives and Livelihoods: The Digital Revolution in Agriculture’, our 2017 annual conference was held in Canberra on 7 and 8 August and focused on the current and future likely impact of the data revolution for smallholder farmers.

Big data represents an unprecedented opportunity to find new ways of reducing hunger and poverty, by applying data-driven solutions to ongoing research for development impact. Further background information on this year’s topic can be found in the topic overview.

By attracting the world’s best speakers, providing extended question and answer sessions and opportunities for informal networking, the Fund’s annual conferences enable participants to contribute and to place food security issues into a context relevant to their lives and work. And being the key event around food security, the networking opportunities are always highly appreciated.

The conference opened on 7 August with our networking dinner and the Sir John Crawford memorial address. We were pleased to have Dr Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, an authoritative leader in agriculture, climate change and nutrition, present the Sir John Crawford Memorial Address this year titled, A New Narrative for Ending Hunger.
On 8 August we had our one day Parliamentary Conference in Parliament House, Canberra, and the list of speakers and the program show a day that commences with an opening by our newly appointed Chair, the Hon John Anderson AO, and included:

• keynotes from eminent international public and private sector speakers
• targeted overview presentations on the current state of play and innovative policy and development project options around impacts of big data on smallholder farmers
• a set of particularly innovative examples of work that have not previously been given the attention they deserve. These case studies were short, rapid-fire presentations by leading Australian and international researchers across industries, global regions and along the food chain

Conference Proceedings

These Proceedings now provide an enduring record of the conference presentations, supporting further application of such solutions, and include the conference papers, and the Sir John Crawford Address.

Download the conference Proceedings.