Ag Tech & Innovation

The climate and markets make the rural economy inherently variable (including potential boom and bust cycles in resources regions). Anticipating and managing uncertainty is crucial, requiring capacity and expertise.

Agriculture is continuously evolving. Traditionally, business models in agriculture and related industries are focussed at on-farm production with limited market intelligence and value chain development. The development of new markets, global trade, integrated value chains and changing consumers demands mean that more innovative business models are needed.

Research priorities for RECoE are:

• Increasing the understanding of market opportunities, especially in Asia, in particular opportunities for the supply of high value export products,
• Enhancing the value of agricultural products – pursuing value-adding through the application of new science and technologies,
• Developing new products –the commercialisation of new ideas, technologies and practices aimed at new market entry,
• Growing export such as by using big data analysis to better match new products to high value markets,
• Business and industry model innovation – experimenting with changes to farm business models(including debt and equity financing), and
• Attracting new investors through innovative new business models.