Name: Video - Interview - Kadambot Siddique, Institute of Agriculture, University of Western Australia
Uploaded: 2016-06-10T22:34:12.867Z
Duration: 8 min 53 s

[MUSIC PLAYING]

DAVID PANNELL: We're speaking today

with Kadambot Siddique, who's Hackett professor

and the director of the Institute of Agriculture

here at the University of Western Australia.

Welcome, Kadambot.

KADAMBOT SIDDIQUE: Thank you, Dave.

DAVID PANNELL: So I'd like to ask

you a few questions about agriculture and its past

and present and future.

In fact, let's start with the present.

What do you think are the key challenges that

face agriculture at the moment?

KADAMBOT SIDDIQUE: There are a number of challenges.

The global competition from low cost emerging producers

is increasing.

So for example, for the beef industry,

we have to compete with Brazil and India.

For the wheat industry, we have competition

coming from the former Soviet Union countries,

and also from Argentina and so on.

So the international market, there

is clearly competition coming.

The second aspect is we're also having significant issues--

some of our regional communities are at a breaking point,

especially after having a number of droughts associated

with the climate change, climate variability.

We also have been largely focusing

on two or three commodities.

So in other words, we have not diversified our products.

So we need to look at that so that we can have products

to meet the market requirements.

The input cost, escalating fossil fuel,

all that is really taking the profit margin from the farmers.

And again, as I mentioned previously,

the climate change and variability-- so the risk

associated with primary production.

And finally, I believe that there

is new blood needed in the farming industry--

not necessarily research at all.

But in the whole farming, we need

new players to come on board.

DAVID PANNELL: OK, so that's a good summary for Australia.

Do think there are any different issues facing

developing countries?

KADAMBOT SIDDIQUE: Yes, the developing countries,

it's totally a different game.

So if you take globally, there are

over 500 million small holder farmers,

meaning anything from 0.1 hectare to maximum 2 hectares.

And if you take those 500 million small holder farmers,

they produce more than 50% of the world food production.

So what's happening there is 10, 20 years ago, 25 years ago,

there was a person farming.

They produce.

They eat.

They take some to the local markets and so on.

But that's not really helping them to move forward.

So in other words, the demand for various things-- education,

health-- is increasing.

That small farm is not sufficient to support family

for their aspirations.

So the challenge for the global leaders and communities

is, how can we empower these small holder farmers,

turn them from the subsistence agriculture to entrepreneurity.

It can be done by different strategies.

DAVID PANNELL: OK, thanks.

So during the 20th century, the real price

of many agricultural commodities fell steadily,

quite substantially in some classes.

How did farmers manage to stay in business

through that process?

KADAMBOT SIDDIQUE: Especially in advanced countries,

such as Australia, there has been significant innovation

in technology-- for example, the machinery,

the agricultural practices, new varieties,

and also smarter in doing business.

So to refer to the terms of trade,

it has been continually declining.

But the farmers, with the help of researchers, extension

specialist, and business people, have

been able to adapt, change, and then improve

the productivity efficiently to beat

this downward trend in terms of trade.

DAVID PANNELL: Yeah, OK, thank you.

So changing tack a bit, which are the key inputs, most

important inputs, that farmers need

to use effectively for agriculture?

KADAMBOT SIDDIQUE: So if you take overall in Australia,

for example, about 30% to 40% of the cost

of their production per year is input cost.

So that's fertilizers, pesticides,

including herbicides and fungicides and insecticides,

and also the machinery, the capital cost.

So they are the biggest challenge.

And unfortunately, in our system, a lot of this input

has to be up front.

And then the risk associated with that practice

is you're always waiting on, in a dry land

agricultural system, the rainfall.

So the future depends upon, how can the farmers

optimize the input use?

How can they then use the technology to reduce the input,

not necessarily to produce maximum, but the optimum,

for that input?

That's the challenge.

DAVID PANNELL: Yes, OK, thank you.

And I'll ask you to crystal ball gaze a little bit.

How do you see agriculture changing in Australia

in the coming decades?

KADAMBOT SIDDIQUE: I think in Australia,

already we are seeing consolidation

of agricultural lands.

The small, inefficient people are already moving out.

So there will be more efficient and more market-oriented

producers.

There will be a consolidation of technology and adoption

of rapid adoption of those technology

so that they can capitalize.

We will be looking for markets, not just

the low end of the market.

We will be looking at the higher end of the market.

For example, Japan is a very important market for us.

But more importantly now-- China, Indonesia, Korea,

and all these markets where people

can afford to buy our product.

The other point is that we need to sell

our product on our clean, green image.

That's a very important selling point.

And clearly, the cost of production we cannot compare

to the low-cost countries.

So we must end up the high market.

We also need to do more niche marketing.

What I mean "niche marketing" is that there

are consumers asking for specific products.

And they're prepared to pay that.

And that then translates to growers' income.

DAVID PANNELL: So you mentioned that Australian products could

be marketed, agricultural products

could be marketed, as a clean, green product.

So what is it about Australian agriculture

that means that we can do that?

Why are our products relatively clean and green?

KADAMBOT SIDDIQUE: OK, if you look at our input use--

fertilizer and fungicides, et cetera--

as compared to many other countries, even

European countries, we use only a fraction of that.

The second aspect is that we are a fragile ecosystem.

We have been practicing things like conservation agriculture.

There are farmers in Western Australia who have not

plowed their land for the last 18 years.

And then we're also using optimization of input.

And our environment is also very good.

So you go to some other countries--

I have had the experience where the importers come and say,

look, this is fantastic.

Whereas they buy products from China, or even parts of India,

et cetera-- all the environmental pollutions.

That is something, a very selling point-- large farms,

open space, and no environmental pollution.

The other aspect is we have locked more than 36%

of our land into natural conservation,

forest, et cetera.

So we need to sell.

We're only using a fraction of-- say, 3.8%--

the land for product agriculture.

There are range lands where we use quite a large [INAUDIBLE].

And we need to do some conservation practices

so that we can have beef production, sheep production,

et cetera, on those range lands, but at the same time,

promoting our conservation agriculture, natural resource

management.

DAVID PANNELL: Thank you very much, Kadambot.

It's been very interesting.

KADAMBOT SIDDIQUE: Thank you, Dave.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Video - Interview - Kadambot Siddique, Institute of Agriculture, University of Western Australia

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