7 results
Adoption
PROJECT NUMBER • 2018-171
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

CRDC: FRDC Contribution: Growing a digital future - understanding digital capability in Australian agriculture

In an effort to respond to a rapidly changing agricultural environment and boost the industry's competitiveness entering a new age of digital farming, Cotton RDC and a group of Rural Research and Development Corporations (including FRDC) have come together to fund the Agriculture workforce digital...
ORGANISATION:
Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC)
Adoption
PROJECT NUMBER • 2017-249
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

RRD4P: FRDC contribution: Precision to Decision Agriculture (Rural Research and Development for Profit Programme 2016)

The aim of this project was to benchmark Australian producers’ needs, perceived risks and benefits, and expectations associated with digital agriculture and big data context. Such understanding will inform strategies aimed at 1) better utilising agricultural data to...
ORGANISATION:
Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC)
People
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2020-126
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Australian Agrifood Data Exchange (OzAg Data Exchange): Deliver an interconnected data highway for Australia's AgriFood value chain - Proof of concept

Pain point: The delay in exchange and reconciliation of catch data by fishers and processors means that there is a delay in quota accounting which impacts planning due to lack of timely information. Furthermore, with no access to pre-fishing information data to the processors means they are unable...
ORGANISATION:
Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA)

Preliminary evaluation of electro stunning technology for farmed Barramundi

Project number: 2021-051
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $21,123.00
Principal Investigator: Brian Paterson
Organisation: Department of Agriculture and Fisheries Brisbane
Project start/end date: 11 Nov 2021 - 28 Feb 2022
Contact:
FRDC
SPECIES

Need

The Australian Barramundi Farmers Association (ABFA) called for an EOI via FRDC for a proposal to evaluate alternative humane harvest methods for farmed barramundi. Specifically, the ABFA identified electro-stunning as a technology of interest to further optimise animal welfare outcomes, while maintaining product quality. The association needs all available information reviewed to evaluate the technology’s potential and if recommended, to help shape the direction of future R&D into the suitability of electro-stunning for the barramundi industry. As a precursor to possible on-farm trials, the ABFA wants to better understand the nature of the technology and learn from international experience in other fish culture sectors. This full proposal addresses the ABFA’s desire for greater insight into; (a) consumer’s attitudes towards fish harvesting and slaughter; (b) the state of uptake of similar technologies by other aquaculture sectors; (c) how to adapt electro-stunning efficiently into a harvest process for a range of barramundi farm sites; (d) whether local or overseas manufacturers/agents can be engaged to co-fund tests of equipment on-farm; and (e) what requirements must be met to make that testing possible and how it would be conducted.
Approval of the EOI was subject to the full application addressing the need for the literature review to include any work on methodology for establishing product quality indicators in addition to welfare indicators (Condition 9).

Objectives

1. Information about electro-stunning in fish aquaculture (reports, publications, websites, media) found using broad and selective web-searching as well as via on-line databases and then compiled/prioritised into an organised electronic library. The other objectives are addressed from this starting point.
2. Identify declared attitudes and expectations of consumers, leading retailers, and animal welfare groups concerning electro-stunning of farmed fish
3. Identify farmed fish sectors using electro-stunning for slaughter or other purposes and the known pros and cons of integrating it into their operations (including demonstrated cost-benefit, and welfare and product quality outcomes).
4. Describe the principle/specifications of electro-stunning and its relevance to different barramundi producers for slaughter and other uses and the desired end points including the methods required to measure product quality and welfare indicators).
5. Shortlist equipment to be tested/adapted on farms and consider IP and partnering/co-funding options
6. Recommend the next steps and a possible structure for a proposal to ABFA that demonstrates the efficacy of the equipment
People
PROJECT NUMBER • 2020-111
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Accelerating the adoption of digital technology on Queensland prawn farms

The Prawn Farmers Digital Skills Hub is free and available at the CQU website link. The hub will provide the Australian prawn farming industry with access to education and training in the digital skills required to accelerate the adoption of current and emerging technologies. The Prawn Farmers...
ORGANISATION:
Australian Prawn Farmers Association (APFA)

Developing FRDC’s 2020-2025 RD&E Plan

Project number: 2018-197
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $370,061.23
Principal Investigator: Matt Barwick
Organisation: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC)
Project start/end date: 19 Apr 2019 - 30 Dec 2020
Contact:
FRDC

Need

Section 19 of PIRD Act requires R&D corporations to prepare R&D Plans for each consecutive 5-year period. Each plan is to include (at a minimum):
· a statement of the Corporation’s objectives and priorities for the period to which the plan is expressed to relate; and
· an outline of the strategies that the Corporation intends to adopt in order to achieve those objectives.
Under section 10 of the Funding Agreement between FRDC and the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAWR), FRDC is required to develop a consultation plan, which seeks to:
• explain the purpose and objectives of consultation to inform the 2020-2025 RD&E Plan;
• describe who will be consulted;
• outline methods proposed; and,
• explain how input provided will be used.

FRDC is to obtain DAWR approval for the consultation plan prior to commencement of activities.
In order to develop an RD&E Plan which accurately interprets and responds to RD&E needs for Australia’s fishing and aquaculture community it is important to understand the aspirations, pain points, risks and opportunities of each sector over the intended life of the plan through undertaking broad consultation. It is also important to understand the current situation of the fishing and aquaculture (F&A) community (including indigenous, wild catch, aquaculture and recreational, and post-harvest sectors). The situational analysis should provide an updated understanding of what fishing and aquaculture looks like in Australia today, who is involved, what drives them, how they are performing, how the product (if retained) is used, what are the main dominant risks and trends. An earlier situational analysis delivered as an output of FRDC Project 2014/503.20 provides a useful template.
Finally, it is for any RD&E plan to be informed by an understanding of likely future trends, risks and opportunities facing Australia’s F&A community in the future. This requires:
· compilation of evidence to enable consideration of likely future geopolitical, social, economic, environmental and/or technical changes likely to occur in the future, and drivers of those changes;
· generation of projections relating to supply and demand for seafood products as well as cultural and/or recreational time use

Objectives

1. Undertake consultative activities to inform development of the 2020-2025 RD&E Plan
2. Deliver a contemporary situational analysis for Australia’s fishing and aquaculture community to inform FRDC’s 2020-2025 RD&E Plan
3. Deliver a future-scan with a decadal time horizon (2030) to inform FRDC’s 2020-2025 RD&E Plan
4. Undertake activities necessary to enable launch of the 2020-2025 RD&E Plan by 30 June 2020.

Final report

Authors: Jeff Dambacher Alistair Hobday Fabio Boschetti Chris Moeseneder Linda Thomas
Final Report • 2020-05-28 • 2.57 MB
2018-197-DLD.pdf

Summary

This report covers the second of two CSIRO contributions to the project FRDC 2018-197. This project was reviewing FRDC research objectives through a process that developed alternative scenarios of possible futures relevant to Australian fisheries. Discussed here is the development of a quantitative model to explore future seafood scenarios developed elsewhere. The purpose of this modelling exercise was to support the project FRDC 2018-197. The development of these possible future scenarios was undertaken in a process 
that ran in parallel to the CSIRO contribution. This process involved a series of stakeholder workshops and follow-up discussions, to which CSIRO staff were occasional observers.
The qualitative models developed to describe present day dynamics were then tested to see if they could account for previously observed shocks or perturbations the Australian aquaculture and fisheries system. This involved a face-to-face workshop and teleconference with representatives of the Stage 1 expert group.
Based on external input to management, employment and environmental variables, the qualitative models produced a set of predictions that were highly consistent with previously observed impacts in Australian fisheries and aquaculture. 
The models were then tested to see how well they compared to the dynamics described in the future scenarios, and here model predictions were found to be highly consistent with the dynamics played out in the two future scenarios – that is, both worlds are likely.
With ongoing support from CSIRO, these models can now be used to explore alternative perturbations, identify the informative indicators, and to determine when these models of the future (World A and B) are no longer realistic representations of real situation. If insufficient information is being gather on these indicators, the efforts could be made to collect such data, or if the information is too expensive, the alternatives can also be investigated to determine how many alternative indicators provide the equivalent conformation
Final Report • 2020-05-28 • 2.57 MB
2018-197-DLD.pdf

Summary

This report covers the second of two CSIRO contributions to the project FRDC 2018-197. This project was reviewing FRDC research objectives through a process that developed alternative scenarios of possible futures relevant to Australian fisheries. Discussed here is the development of a quantitative model to explore future seafood scenarios developed elsewhere. The purpose of this modelling exercise was to support the project FRDC 2018-197. The development of these possible future scenarios was undertaken in a process 
that ran in parallel to the CSIRO contribution. This process involved a series of stakeholder workshops and follow-up discussions, to which CSIRO staff were occasional observers.
The qualitative models developed to describe present day dynamics were then tested to see if they could account for previously observed shocks or perturbations the Australian aquaculture and fisheries system. This involved a face-to-face workshop and teleconference with representatives of the Stage 1 expert group.
Based on external input to management, employment and environmental variables, the qualitative models produced a set of predictions that were highly consistent with previously observed impacts in Australian fisheries and aquaculture. 
The models were then tested to see how well they compared to the dynamics described in the future scenarios, and here model predictions were found to be highly consistent with the dynamics played out in the two future scenarios – that is, both worlds are likely.
With ongoing support from CSIRO, these models can now be used to explore alternative perturbations, identify the informative indicators, and to determine when these models of the future (World A and B) are no longer realistic representations of real situation. If insufficient information is being gather on these indicators, the efforts could be made to collect such data, or if the information is too expensive, the alternatives can also be investigated to determine how many alternative indicators provide the equivalent conformation