The federal government has announced a $10 million mission to secure the nation’s food supply chains, as well as build resilience to future shocks experienced across the agrifood industry.
The government-backed Food Agility Cooperative Research Centre, established in 2018 to assist farmers, food producers and food industry businesses, launched the three-year program, Mission Food For Life. It aims to bring agrifood business, tech companies and the research sector together to create “data-driven technologies” to support the food supply chain.
Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews said Australia’s food supply chains had taken “some big knocks” in the past 12 months.
“The drought was still biting hard when the bushfires hit. Now we’re grappling with a pandemic which has put incredible pressure on our supply chains,” said Andrews.
“The reality is shocks and stresses like these will continue to happen, and are likely to happen more frequently into the future.
“Increasing the agrifood sector’s adoption of data and digital technology is the key to resilient food supply chains that can bounce back, adapt and harness opportunities.
“Further strengthening our supply chains is not only a good thing for us domestically, it helps create opportunities for our farmers and manufacturers to build on our reputation as a food powerhouse around the globe.”
The Mission Food For Life initiative will identify vulnerable areas across the supply chain in six areas, including read meat, grains, horticulture, dairy, wine and seafood.
As part of the program, research and development projects will help deliver digital tools to improve business and community resilience in these areas, while longer term, the program aims to “integrate digital and data technologies like information systems, software platforms and sensing technologies across the supply chains to improve quality management and capitalise on new market opportunities”.
Earlier in July, the government also announced the Business Research and Innovation Initiative (BRII), which details five national environmental challenges the government is facing.
It will give small- and medium-sized businesses the opportunity to develop solutions to the challenges, which include:
- Revolutionising agricultural spray application;
- Turning farm crops into a renewable hydrogen source;
- Counting fish using advanced technologies;
- Automating the detection of whales at sea; and
- Turning office trash into energy treasure.
Successful applicants will receive grants of up to $100,000 to further develop ideas and test feasibility over three months, where the shortlisted applications may then be eligible for a grant of up to $1 million to develop a prototype or proof of concept over a maximum of 18 months.
Applications close on 10 September 2020. For more information on BRII, visit www.business.gov.au/BRII.
