STRATEGIC PLAN
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2001 – 2006
(Updated
August 2005 following the 2004 APSRU Mid Term Review)
The Agricultural
Production Systems Research Unit (APSRU) is an unincorporated joint venture
between:
Queensland
Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries
CSIRO
Sustainable Ecosystems
Queensland
Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy
and
The
THE
RESEARCH UNIT
In 1990, the Queensland State
Government and CSIRO established the joint research team, the Agricultural
Production Systems Research Unit (APSRU), based in Toowoomba, Qld.
APSRU provides a significant research
capability in
The
Agricultural Production Systems Research Unit is located at:
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APSRU Toowoomba QLD
4350 Telephone + 61 (0) 7 4688 1596 Fax + 61 (0) 7 4688 1193 Web:
www.apsru.gov.au |
APSRU’s MISSION
To benefit rural industries and
the environment through innovative systems approaches to R&D
APSRU’s OPERATING ENVIRONMENT
Issues of economic,
environmental and social sustainability of the farming systems within APSRU’s
mandate remain a central feature of APSRU’s external environment. Rural community development is receiving
considerable attention with increasing urbanisation and withdrawal of support
services and job opportunities from rural communities. Recently, an emphasis on supply/demand chains
has emerged so that production systems are increasingly viewed as a component
of the broader business systems. Greater
influence of consumer attitudes on production system attributes is also
becoming evident. “Improvements” in
production systems remain a key element of rural community prosperity and
development. Such “improvements”, however, need to take account of the broader
socio-economic environment.
Over the past 10 years of
APSRU’s existence, producers and consumers have become more aware of the need
for farming systems to preserve the resource base in the longer term and not to
adversely affect the health of rural catchments and landscapes. Issues concerning utilisation of water,
pesticide movement to streams, and solute movement in catchments and landscapes
have gained increasing profiles. There is a need to examine farm management
options in relation to their influence on catchment and landscape issues.
Major scientific
breakthroughs in molecular genetic technologies have created significant
opportunities for innovative design of organisms to meet farming system
needs. Capabilities now exist to map or
mark major traits and genetic transformation technologies are well developed
for many species. The utilisation of
these technologies in production systems remains problematic due to an
inability to predict consequences of genetic manipulation. While technologies for locating and
manipulating genes have advanced rapidly, understanding of gene function and
value at the organism level remains limited.
There is a need to develop novel methodologies to facilitate effective
use of these new technologies in improving farming systems. There will be
increasing demand for tools and approaches to analyse the impact of genetic
manipulation at the organism level and for methods of assessing the impact of
genetically modified organisms in agricultural and natural ecosystems.
Major
international developments in the science of climate prediction are progressing
rapidly with global research networks being put in place. Opportunities for predictive skill at decadal
time scale are likely within the next 5 years.
There is considerable opportunity for continued connection to these
developments as a means to introduce further innovation in economic and
environmental risk management to farming systems.
As economic and environmental pressures on farming businesses have
intensified, so too have pressures been applied to the research community for
increased relevance to their rural clients. Increasingly, farmers and the
broader community are looking to be partners in exploring opportunities and
resolving constraints to more sustainable farming practices. Consequently, over
the past 5 years there have been significant shifts in research funding towards
more participatory research projects. Research providers who can adapt to such
participative approaches that increase relevance without sacrificing research
rigour increasingly have the opportunity and mandate to address the economic
and environmental issues of today’s and tomorrow’s farming systems.
APSRU’s systems analysis
capacity (participative action research philosophy, human capital and modelling
tools) has been recognised nationally and internationally in relation to
application to farming practice. There
is now considerable demand from other parts of Australia Australia
APSRU’s SCOPE and FOCUS
In the second five-year
term of APSRU (1995-2000) there was a major focus on field and farm scale
agricultural production systems with key result areas in farming practice,
regional land and water management, policy formulation, and farming systems
methods and tools. Significant outcomes included
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Use of soil monitoring and seasonal
climate forecasting as inputs into farm management decisions,
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Pioneering and promoting a
participatory action research approach to engaging on issues of relevance to
farmers and agribusiness
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More appropriate design of
cropping systems to meet profit, resource conservation and environmental goals
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Assessing water and carbon
balance in farming systems to meet needs in resource management policy
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Quantifying risks to inform
policy considerations in both agribusiness and government
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Development of high quality
production system simulation software (APSIM) and derived software products
APSRU
R&D at field scale on cropping system management has reached a point where
implementation/application/extension must be pursued vigorously alongside
continued improvement and refinement of tools.
A number of activities with agribusiness and advisors have established a
sound footing for this implementation.
It must now become a key component of APSRU by inclusion of relevant
staff and by a clear strategy for linkages to other groups. Continuing developments in the area of
seasonal and longer-term climate forecasting provide an on-going stimulus for
research on climate risk management in farming systems. Continuously evolving government
policy and business needs also require broadly-based farming systems research
targeted at quality assurance of farming systems. Closer connection with developments in
supply/demand chain approaches in rural business systems will need to be developed
as part of this research.
Many previous
APSRU projects addressed resource management and environmental issues from the
perspective of on-farm management. A smaller number of projects developed links
to the catchment and landscape levels, and examined issues such as pesticide
and solute movement to streams and groundwater. This area provides an expanding
domain and challenge for APSRU, as it does for many groups in
Some
research projects in APSRU have examined emerging issues in crop improvement
such as predicting gene function and improving plant breeding efficiency. The field of crop design and improvement
provides an expanding domain and challenge for APSRU given the stimulus for
development of novel technologies to make more effective practical use of rapid
advances in gene technologies. The crop
function concepts underpinning APSRU’s existing crop modelling approach
provides an ideal focus for the new technologies required to connect advances
at molecular scale to improvements in cropping systems. This can be achieved through improved
breeding technologies and by improved combinations of genotype and
management. APSRU will link with key
groups operating at sub-organism scale to utilise its physiology and modelling
expertise and capacity to best advantage in researching these issues.
The maintenance of world class modelling tools is the key linking technology across these domains. The current software engineering activity responsible for APSIM remains a key facilitating technology for organism and field scale issues, with some emerging capability in multi-field or farm scales. APSRU recognise that these tools are not appropriate for catchment and landscape scales and propose to build alliances with other groups with expertise and modelling tools applicable to these scales.
The key stakeholders of APSRU are
our staff, collaborators and clients. Communication, both internally and
externally, is crucial to the success of APSRU and processes for effective
communication are required in both areas.
Hence,
there are four research key result areas of focus for this third 5-year phase
of APSRU –
·
Agricultural
sustainability positively enhanced via innovative research in rural business
systems
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New approaches towards integrating
and balancing environmental, social and economic factors that can contribute to
more sustainable management of catchments and landscapes
·
Improved crop design for
productivity and sustainability
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Research
communities and industry benefiting from and utilizing a range of quality
software tools
This phase
of APSRU will be implemented to have significant capacity to contribute to
these four dimensions and to resolve the developing national and international
demands for the systems approach it has pioneered. Within these key result
areas, APSRU will continue to contribute to disciplinary research frontiers
that underpin innovative systems research. These include crop physiology, soil
fertility, climate forecasting and participatory action research. In concert with this targeted systems R&D
program, maintaining and improving human capacity in this area will become a
key feature of APSRU.
The
challenge facing this new phase of APSRU is to align its demonstrated strengths
and comparative advantages with these emerging opportunities. The strengthening
of existing, and forging of new partnerships, is seen as a critical step in
meeting this challenge.
APSRU’s CORE FUNCTIONS
At the
Strategic level APSRU should continue to be focused around the core functions
of:
·
Facilitation of Research Collaboration;
·
Co-development and management of
research tools, methods and resources; and
·
Influence Systems Research and
Design processes.
These core
functions are achieved through:
Co-location: This is a natural way
fostering informal collaboration and exchange of knowledge in a research
environment. True collaboration is
difficult when small groups are separated from larger groups. A proposed solution to this is the
strengthening of existing ‘nodes’ and the development of new ‘nodes’ (e.g.
Co-development and management: This
creates efficiencies in software development and maintenance where core
functions can be shared for different research needs. This is one of the real strengths of APSRU.
Management of joint venture IP is also critical.
Collaboration: This is the major function
of APSRU. This can be strengthened through better planning and implementation
of shared or joint projects, joint development and maintenance of research
tools and informally through sharing of knowledge and resources either at the
researcher level or at the organisational level.
APSRU’s FIVE YEAR PLAN
APSRU CORE FUNCTIONS
The APSRU unincorporated joint venture has the
following core functions in the field of farming systems RD&E:
1.
Facilitation of Research Collaboration;
2.
Co-development and management of research tools, methods
and resources; and
3.
Influence Systems Research and Design processes.
In addition the development and implementation of management
reporting and evaluation of the activities of APSRU relating to the above core
functions is required.
APSRU RESEARCH KEY RESULT AREAS
There are four research key result
areas (KRA) at which APSRU’s activities are targeted:
1.
Sustainable Agricultural
Systems
2.
Sustainable Catchments and Landscapes
3.
Improved Crop Design for Productivity and Sustainability
4.
Modelling Tools and Methods
APSRU CORE FUNCTIONS:
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Outcome |
Strategy |
Performance Indicator |
Proposed Measures |
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1.
Facilitation of Research Collaboration (Internal and external) |
Communication
(sharing of knowledge, information and resources) |
Staff are aware of
functioning and operations of AMC and Board |
AMC to communicate
APSRU activities to staff Minutes available
to all staff |
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APSRU
lists of projects, papers and reports maintained and readily accessible to
staff |
Web Site, Project
database, publications database |
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Communication
strategy developed and implemented, including the active maintenance of a
vibrant APSRU web page APSRU Science and systems approaches effective in
gaining recognition and application |
Communication Plan, Web Page |
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Annual
science meeting hosted by APSRU and attended by stakeholders |
Yearly APSRU
Science Meeting, Attendance records. |
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Joint Project
development, Planning and delivery |
Project development
process instigated that is transparent and independent of organisational
boundaries |
AMC approve
projects before submission, Project Planning and
Development process in place |
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At
least 30% of total APSRU funding sourced from external investors |
Project database
(funding) |
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APSRU Management
committee functioning to satisfaction of APSRU Board and staff |
Board review and
evaluation |
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An
APSRU Research Collaboration Tool developed and made accessible to staff
across all locations and provide summary information on APSRU projects and
expertise |
Project Database
accessible via the Web Site |
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Agribusiness
collaboration with APSRU on systems research projects via active
participation of their staff |
Project Database
(Collaborators), Commercial delivery
agreements |
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Reference
to APSRU systems research capabilities and tools acknowledged within national
and international research projects and publications. |
Project Database, Publications
database |
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The
number of cross-organisational projects increasing over time |
Project Database Target of 50% of
new projects as collaborative |
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Co-location |
Strengthen
existing multi locational groups and develop new locations with current and
new partners |
Existing and new
APSRU ‘nodes’ functioning well and developing collaborative linkages. |
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Projects aligned
with APSRU KRA’s and strategic investment priorities of Stakeholders (Home
organisation and Funding bodies) |
APSRU projects
demonstrate relevance to strategic plan (KRA) |
APSRU Project
Summary |
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APSRU KRA’s align
to Home organisation and Funding body priorities |
KRA’s mapped to
home organisation strategic plans and priorities |
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APSRU’s Strategic
Direction |
APSRU Board actively
engaged with the AMC regarding the ongoing relevance and focus of the
Strategic Plan. |
Annual review of
the Strategic Plan by the AMC and Board. |
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2.
Co-development and Management of research tools, methods and resources |
Development of a |
Research
tools/methods, design and development process instigated that are transparent
and independent of organisational boundaries |
AMC Planning and
Development process in place, AMC to approve all
developments. |
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Collaborative
use of APSRU tools with stakeholders and other agencies |
Database of
software users |
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Standard approach
to access to Joint Venture IP |
Standard
approach to the management of Joint venture IP through appropriate access
policies and licenses |
APSIM Access and Pricing
Policy, ‘Free’ software
licensed |
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Commercialization
of Joint Venture IP |
Commercial
applications of APSRU IP and capabilities by business |