September 2022

RACAus members host an agri-tech delegation from Argentina

The Argentine delegation with researchers at CSIRO's experimental farm in Boorowa, NSW.

Members of the Network helped organise a trade mission from Santa Fe's agribusiness sector to Australia, including visits to the Henty Machinery Field Days and CSIRO's experimental farm at Boorowa.

Members of RACAus contributed to organising and hosting a trade delegation from the Argentinian Agri-business sector to Australia in September 2022. The goal of this trade mission was to promote companies and products in the areas of agricultural machinery, livestock and AgTech developed in Santa Fe, Argentina. The Embassy of Argentina in Australia was in charge of hosting the delegation and organising activities with Australian partners.

Mr Daniel Costamagna, Minister for Production, Science and Technology of Santa Fe, headed a fourteen-people delegation of representatives from the agri-sector business. In addition to high-level officials, the delegates belonged to private companies in the agricultural machinery sector, livestock, biotechnology and AgTech.

One of the main reasons for the trade visit was to attend the Henty Machinery Field Days, one of the largest farm fairs in Australia. During the event, Dr Juan Guerschman, Senior Remote Sensing Scientist at Cibo Labs and RACAus founding member, met with the delegation. Dr Guerschman presented work on satellite technologies used to aid decision-making in the livestock industry.

On September 23rd, part of the delegation visited the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) experimental farm at Boorowa, NSW. CSIRO is the prime research agency in Australia that provides scientific and technological solutions to the industry sector.

Demonstration of crop monitoring technologies using drones and buggies.

Technical presentation during the delegation's visit.

Dr Gonzalo Estavillo (CSIRO and RACAus) provided a broad overview of CSIRO and explained some of the work areas of Agriculture & Food. Mr Stuart Brown presented a summary of the research carried out on the Boorowa Agricultural Research Station and showed the progress made to produce a “digital twin” of the research station based on the existing sensor networks. Dr Mark Glover provided an engaging presentation about digital soil mapping. He also summarised work from another RACAus member, Dr Diogenes Antille, about the importance of controlled farm traffic in mitigating some of the adverse effects of machinery traffic on soil, including compaction and erosion, while improving productivity and field operating efficiency. Finally, Dr Sonja Dominic provided a comprehensive overview of the work in the Livestock and Aquaculture Research Program. The visitors were able to receive a demonstration from Dr AJE Haddis about the latest technologies for monitoring crops using land buggies and drones.

The delegation closed the official visit with a lunch hosted by His Excellency Mr Maximo Gowland, Ambassador of Argentina in Australia, held at his residence in Canberra on September 26. RACAus members are grateful to the Embassy of Argentina in Canberra, particularly to the embassy Deputy Head of Mission Leandro Waisman, for allowing us to contribute to this exciting and important trade visit. We look forward to keep contributing to promoting exchange of ideas and identifying opportunities for collaborations between Argentina and Australia.