Mark Adams - Agriculture

Maximising land use and plant productivity

Australia plays a significant global role as a provider of food. It is also one of the most carbon-intensive economies in the world. Consequently, Australia has a responsibility to lead the way towards sustainability.

Professor Adams is a passionate advocate of ‘conservation through use’ and believes that real solutions to environmental problems lie not in our cities but ‘in the bush’.

Adams’ beliefs inform his leadership of the Faculty, which is targeting solutions to key environmental issues – food security, climate change and its effects on production, and the carbon balance of ecosystems.

One potential solution is to restore production to hundreds of thousands of hectares of degraded land. A means of such bioremediation is to use the potential of native and introduced nitrogen-fixing species, such as Acacia spp., Casuarina spp., and grain legumes.

Researchers have at their disposal massive and underused genetic resources, including more than 900 species of Acacia and the soybean genome.

There is almost unlimited potential to develop nitrogen-fixing species that can cope with difficult soil conditions, like acidity, salinity, sodicity and nutrient impoverishment.

An ideal outcome would be for one straightforward intervention to improve soil fertility without the use of fertilizer, improve the carbon and hydrological balance of large areas of land, produce food and fuel from land not currently in production, and enhance biodiversity outcomes.

The research required is multi-faceted. It would involve breeding and agronomic programs, research into the genetic control of nitrogen fixation and water-use efficiency, analysis of market forces, and a detailed study of how native and introduced plants will respond to rising CO2 and changed availability of water.