Joint media release with the Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia The Hon. David Littleproud MP

The Morrison Government is supporting efforts by the CSIRO – Australia’s national science agency – to help grow the agriculture sector and secure the long-term economic prosperity of our regional communities. 

CSIRO has today launched three new “missions” that will see more than $150 million invested in key research and development collaborations that will tackle Australia’s biggest agriculture and food challenges.

The three missions and their respective goals are:

• Drought Resilience Mission, to reduce the impact of Australian droughts by 30 per cent by 2030. The Mission is vital to protect jobs and agricultural profitability, strengthen the economic resilience and water security of regional communities, and improve environmental outcomes.
• Trusted Agrifood Exports, to increase the value of Australian food exports by $10 billion by 2030. The mission will improve access to high-value markets, verify the authenticity of Australian products through new methods of demonstrating food origin, and improve supply chain efficiency through automated export compliance.
• Future Protein, to grow Australia’s protein industry and produce an additional $10 billion of new products by 2030. The mission, which is backed by Meat and Livestock Australia and GrainCorp among others, will support existing livestock and aquaculture industries to transform no or low-value waste streams into high value food products. The Mission will also focus on developing new protein-based industries and products along the full value chain to enable grain growers to capitalise on emerging consumer trends.

Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Christian Porter said the CSIRO missions will ensure Australia can continue to be the envy of the world in agricultural innovation.

“The CSIRO’s missions program is about using innovative science and technology to reach beyond what is possible today to solve Australia’s greatest challenges, and this is certainly the aim of these three missions,” Minister Porter said.

“CSIRO will play a crucial role in fostering collaboration with government, industry and the research sector to drive innovation and deliver strong outcomes for the whole Australian agriculture sector, leading to economic growth and job creation, particularly in our regions.”

Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia David Littleproud said the missions will help make Australian farmers and communities more resilient to droughts, increase the value of Australian food exports and help to secure the future of our regional communities. 

“The missions will also help the agriculture industry achieve its ambitious target to increase the value of the nation’s agrifood exports to $100 billion in the next decade,” Minister Littleproud said.

“Transforming Australia’s agriculture sector requires a large, focused research effort between industry, government and research organisations, and the Australian Government is committed to supporting these monumental efforts.

Key to each mission’s success will be a growing list of partners in industry, government and the research sector. Those include GrainCorp, Bureau of Meteorology, Meat and Livestock Australia, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Department of Industry, Science, Energy and

Resources, Austrade, state governments and leading universities from around the country.

The three Missions are supported by $79 million from CSIRO, with combined contributions of $71 million from industry and government. 

In 2020, CSIRO identified a portfolio of initial missions in development to solve Australia’s greatest challenges through innovative science and technology. CSIRO will continue to launch future missions over the next 12 months.

More information on CSIRO Missions are available at: https://www.csiro.au/en/about/challenges-missions/