Introducing Our Conference Scholar Reflections…first up South Australia!
September 8, 2022
The Crawford Fund’s Annual Conference was held last month in Parliament House, Canberra. The event had a special flavour this year celebrating 35 years of the Crawford Fund and the 40th anniversary of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). These milestones provided an opportunity for all those who are a part of Australia’s rich history in agriculture for development to get together and celebrate and, also to reflect and to consider the work yet to be done.
As well as bringing together the world’s leading experts in agricultural science, research, policy, development and industry to address the conference topic, the Crawford Fund is committed to encouraging the next generation in international agriculture for development to the event via scholarships awarded through our State and Territory committees and scholar supporters.
Our conference scholarship program started in 2010 in the hope that by experiencing the Crawford Fund conference and network, our special program of activities around the conference and being mentored by inspirational experienced researchers, young researchers would be inspired and energised to be more involved. The results have been fantastic, with a great mix of youth and experience at our flagship event each August and a growing and enthusiastic conference scholar alumni approaching 400.
Our competitive Conference Scholarships are offered to young people with a genuine interest in international agricultural research and development to attend the conference and a special set of activities that we have developed since the program commenced in 2010.
Our other activities to encourage university students and early career researcher include highlighting opportunities in volunteering for projects overseas through the Australian Volunteers Program; our work with Researchers in Agriculture for International Development (RAID), and our special international student awards to enable students to be involved in overseas projects as part of their university study.
One of the requirements of the scholarship is that each scholar provides us with a reflection on their experience. We will be providing these reflections over the coming weeks, grouped by State.
Once again, we would like to thank our wonderful mentors, mentioned alongside the scholar they supported, who volunteer their time and offer valuable guidance, support and insights to the scholars throughout the conference.
Four South Australian scholars attended the 2022 Crawford Fund conference supported by our SA Committee. Highlights of their experiences have been captured below:
Troy Miller, Flinders University
“This experience was particularly useful for me, having indirect involvement with international agriculture. I hope I can inspire others like me to apply for the Crawford Fund scholarship. The parliamentary conference provided me with a heightened appreciation for the many facets of plant science and agriculture, which keep the world moving forward. The wide range of speakers across many disciplines here in Australia and overseas made for a fascinating and educational experience that I will forever remember fondly.”
Isabelle Oude-Egberink, Department of Primary Industries and Regions
“The Crawford Fund experience in Canberra will be on my mind for some time – I have never been to anything like it before! The conference and scholar day activities were lifting and thought-provoking experiences and left me highly encouraged to pursue a future career in the field of international agricultural research for development.”
Hayley Pfeifer, University of Adelaide
“Hope among other things, is what I can positively say that I have returned home from the Crawford Fund conference with. The conference allowed an excellent opportunity for professionals in food, nutrition and agriculture development come together with a diverse set of skills to work towards a common goal. This diversity was highlighted as an important point moving forward by many of the speakers throughout the conference to ensure that suggested projects were targeted, robust and applicable to target populations.”
Isabelle Thomas, University of Adelaide
“Through the organised scholarly activities especially the networking and presentations given and the conference, I gained invaluable skills, learnings and inspiration that is not easily accessed if it was not for the Crawford Fund and RAID. I have gained an array of contacts from networking with other scholars, prestigious scientists, researchers, representatives from Australian and international agencies and other stakeholders.”
Read on for the full reflections of each SA scholar:
Troy Miller, Flinders University
Mentor: Daniel Tan
As a molecular biologist, I came into the Crawford Fund conference with an outside perspective on international agriculture and I left with a new appreciation for agricultural development. I was particularly interested in this year’s focus on the benefits, impact and future challenges for food and nutrition security, as I have a keen interest in food security. The conference and scholar activities were an incredible experience, where I was able to engage with many like-minded scholars and agricultural experts. It was also uniquely exciting to hear about international agricultural development from the international speakers.
It is difficult to deservedly acknowledge all the insightful speakers who presented at the conference and scholar days within this short reflection, so I will briefly recap my two highlight keynote speakers.
Dr Philip Pardey, who spoke about the global economics of R&D and the associated outcomes in his talk (AGRI-FOOD R&D: Re-examining the rewards and the risks), provided several thought provoking and hopeful key messages for the way ahead in agricultural research. I have always been curious in learning more about economics of global agricultural R&D and the accompanying benefits, so Dr Pardey’s talk was of particular interest to me. Dr Pardey presented insightful statistics around the global decrease in government and increase in private spending towards agricultural research, with a follow up remark about whether all the easy gains have already been made in R&D. Dr Pardey went on to explain his key message that agricultural research requires far-sighted investment policies to reap the impressive return on investment which has already been seen around the world.
Prof Neena Mitter was also a standout speaker, presenting her RNA-based pesticide alternative, BioClay. As someone involved in molecular biology research, it was exciting to hear about Prof Mitter’s work around the development of an ‘environmentally sustainable’ alternative to pesticides for crop protection. She spoke very passionately about her team’s work, yet humbly stated that theirs is only part of the solution towards a more sustainable future and the avoidance of toxic pesticide overuse. It was relieving to hear this perspective from a distinguished researcher, who also emphasised the fundamental importance of collaboration among scientists to solve important issues.
This experience was particularly useful for me, having indirect involvement with international agriculture. I hope I can inspire others like me to apply for the Crawford Fund scholarship. The parliamentary conference provided me with a heightened appreciation for the many facets of plant science and agriculture, which keep the world moving forward. The wide range of speakers across many disciplines here in Australia and overseas made for a fascinating and educational experience that I will forever remember fondly.
I am truly humbled to have been involved in the 2022 Crawford Fund Scholars Program and would like to thank the SA committee for sponsoring my attendance, as well as Larissa and Cathy and the RAID volunteers for their efforts in organising the conference and scholar days.
Isabelle Oude-Egberink, Department of Primary Industries and Regions
Mentor: Helen Scott-Orr
The Crawford Fund experience in Canberra will be on my mind for some time – I have never been to anything like it before! The conference and scholar day activities were lifting and thought-provoking experiences and left me highly encouraged to pursue a future career in the field of international agricultural research for development. The focus on capacity building and encouraging future generations of people into international agricultural development was felt well and truly from the beginning of the conference.
The Crawford fund successfully creates a nurturing and motivational atmosphere through providing the opportunity for scholars to have one-one mentoring with paired professionals that are specialists in their field. The ability to connect with my mentor, other scholars and other older and more wiser professionals in my field enabled me to see the various paths that work in international agricultural development can lead to. This offered me great food for thought and a realistic outlook on future pathways.
It was easy to become overwhelmed at this conference by the multitude of challenges facing global food production (climate change, conflict, biodiversity loss, increasing biosecurity threats). This conference made it clear that food is an overwhelmingly complex issue and career to be involved in and that it can be at the centre of helping the world solve these massive complex challenges!
From the conference speakers I gathered that in order to solve these complex challenges we need to start recognising that all issues we face are often connected and that calls for now transforming how we think about food in order to create more equitable, sustainable and resilient food systems. Session 3 of the conference was one of my highlights, where it was recognised that we need a paradigm shift from ‘agricultural production’ to ‘food production’ in order to work towards a ‘food systems approach’ to understanding food outcomes and food system policy (to encourage diverse, nutritious and ecological food systems) more broadly rather than narrow agricultural policies. From hearing this I have begun to realise how important it is that we increasingly think holistically, understand the connections between the diverse challenges that the world faces and the connections to food security. For this we need policies geared to tackle more than one issue we face and people who have cool, calm and collected minds.
Another key takeaway for me from my time in Canberra was that we must not lose sight that the impacts of work in this field still need better translation into policy. I learned that for this to happen we need ownership and direction by the beneficiaries of the research we do right from the start until the end of projects. We need to adapt our research to ensure impacts are felt by the beneficiaries, that impacts are shared well with decision-makers and that results are accessible. Coming from a sociological background, encouraging more Participatory Research design seems to be one answer to encouraging equitable research collaboration and local capacity building.
I won’t forget my experience in freezing cold Canberra and the connections and refreshed interest in international agricultural development I have gained.
Hayley Pfeifer, University of Adelaide
Mentor: Roger Wickes
Hope among other things, is what I can positively say that I have returned home from the Crawford Fund conference with. The conference allowed an excellent opportunity for professionals in food, nutrition and agriculture development come together with a diverse set of skills to work towards a common goal. This diversity was highlighted as an important point moving forward by many of the speakers throughout the conference to ensure that suggested projects were targeted, robust and applicable to target populations. The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Outcomes, impacts and the way ahead’, providing an exciting discussion and ‘food for thought’ to take away.
The changing climate, economic and geopolitical landscape was stressed to us with the world facing unique challenges. The importance of relationships between countries and investing in these relationships to ensure longevity and alliances is an interesting part of agricultural development strategy that can be an easy oversight. Communication between countries is not only important when directly solving a problem but also in being there in the long run after the problem is solved to maintain the relationship. For many reasons including biosecurity and politically it is important to ensure that our neighbours are succeeding and controlling risks that may impact us in the future.
The looming threat of biosecurity also highlights the importance of a collaborative approach in moving forward with research, ensuring that skills from multiple disciplines are shared to obtain a transferable result. Further, the changing climate has shown us that not only is our evolving world unpredictable but also that our counterparts around the world could very well have experienced a similar climate and have feedback or data that we could learn from.
Climate change is very much a topic on everyone’s minds at the moment. Agriculture is in a unique position to absorb carbon rather than adding to carbon in the atmosphere unlike many other industries. Furthermore, it is important that while our neighbouring countries are developing that we assist where we can, to ensure that any new technologies that they adopt are sustainable moving forward and do not expose them to penalty that may impact their development moving forward.
An important quote from Cate Rogers, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, was ‘The world doesn’t have a food supply issue but rather an issue in getting food to where it needs to go’. This is an important concept as it addresses that our population is increasing with more countries demanding high quality protein sources, however we are also still experiencing significant food waste and research needs to be directed at reducing food waste in our production cycle.
Funding structures for research and work in agricultural development was also mentioned by multiple presenters and highlighted the instability that is involved in developmental work and how this be restrictive in providing stable employment and income for projects that are required to run over multiple years.
There is so much more I write about from this conference as I thoroughly enjoyed and took in every part of what was presented. I am extremely grateful to the Crawford Fund and the SA committee for the opportunity to attend such a worthwhile event and I am especially grateful to have connected with so many likeminded people. I am looking forward to working with my new connections in the future to create a better world.
Isabelle Thomas, University of Adelaide
Mentor: Tristan Armstrong
I am utterly grateful for being given the opportunity to attend the Crawford Fund Annual Conference as a conference scholar. The engagement through the scholar programs and access to an instrumental mentor was unique. The conference’s concept was ‘Celebrating Agriculture for Development – Outcomes, Impacts and the Way Ahead’. Through my current studies of a Masters of Global Food and Agricultural Business, I have learnt and focused on international development through policy, business and trade opportunities, so the conference complimented my education.
The discussions and presentations helped me gain a further understanding of areas of the world that need additional assistance and comprehend agricultural impacts globally, especially the role Australia plays. One of the biggest takings I got from the conference was the discussion Jessica Raneri bought up about nutrition-sensitive agriculture. Essentially the need to consider nutrition as a whole when implementing agricultural extension programs. I personally had not thoroughly considered its importance. Through my undergraduate studies where nutrition is a part of my bachelor’s qualification, it sparked a key interest for me to play, my part in international development to help educate and address this significance.
I learnt about an array of new agricultural technologies and techniques that have been trialled and implemented globally to assist in agricultural production. A standout was a presentation made by Professor Neena Mitter where she educated us on an environmentally sustainable crop protector named ‘Bio Clay’. It was great to hear and learn about new products and techniques that are being used or are close to being used.
Through the organised scholarly activities especially the networking and presentations given and the conference, I gained invaluable skills, learnings and inspiration that is not easily accessed if it was not for the Crawford Fund and RAID. I have gained an array of contacts from networking with other scholars, prestigious scientists, researchers, representatives from Australian and international agencies and other stakeholders. I must make a special mention to my mentor Dr. Tristan Armstrong, who has given me invaluable guidance, advice and inspiration to pursue a career in international development. Likewise, he was open to answering any questions I had and still have. Thank you to the Crawford Fund and RAID, I am excited to complete my Masters and repay the Crawford Fund’s aims of improving food and nutrition security.
