Looking forward from a strong foundation

As someone who has observed, participated in, led, and evaluated ACIAR investments across Asia, Africa and the Middle East for more than a decade, ACIAR holds a special place in my heart. Working across other development funders such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID has also given me a perspective of and pride in Australia’s special place in the global agricultural research sphere.

It is interesting to speculate about what the next decades hold for a small, targeted agency like ACIAR, which has built a niche in funding research for development as opposed to specific development interventions. This model has paved the way for investment in scientifically rigorous projects alongside the development of local research capacity, building a solid foundation for the future.

However, we must not kid ourselves about what we now face. Thanks to climate change, the coming years – not decades – will test the resiliency of smallholder agricultural systems. Add in layers of cultural and dietary change, urban migration and sustained societal pressure to drive down food prices, and the viability of smallholder agriculture is more challenged than ever. In an era that may no longer value farming as a meaningful and viable livelihood, it remains to be seen who the farmers of the next generation will be.

Even with emerging genetic innovations it is unlikely we will witness a ‘Green Revolution 2.0’ driven by genetic innovation. Future system intensification will be more complex; productivity gains will need to involve practice change and wider diversity within farming units, and profitability will need to be driven by wider integration beyond the farming unit (not forgetting that not all smallholder farmers want both, which will make it progressively more complex for extension and research programming).

There is a justified focus on ensuring no one is left behind by grounding our work in fairness and equity, raising difficult questions about where to focus our energies in a morally responsible way.

So, what does this mean for the future of ACIAR? What are the ‘big-picture’ activities that might transform ACIAR to new heights.

As a graduate of the Australia Youth Ambassadors for Development program, I recognise that one of its key design features is pairing recruits with in-country individuals, who then work together daily. The aim is that by the end of a posting, in-country skills have been raised to a level that makes the youth ambassador role redundant.

What if a similar model became a focus within ACIAR projects, especially given the high proportion of tertiary educators that are part of the ACIAR system? The aim would be not only to create research outputs but also to build local capacity so that local institutions can continue working after the project is completed.

Every ACIAR project will need to measure its impact and explore intended and unintended outcomes and contextual barriers. Given this, I would love to see ‘social systems’ and ‘impact assessment’ research programs as overarching and cross-cutting programs within the ACIAR organisational structure. This would start to harmonise the broad investments from ACIAR to enable a much deeper understanding of how to plan, monitor and measure research activities and impact.

This does not mean these programs do not warrant their own research projects; but there is so much more we could learn through a synergised approach. How much more powerful would the investments from ACIAR be if we had a standardised impact assessment and could talk about the relevant social implications of our work? This would also help transition scaling work much earlier in the project cycle and open broader research questions to plan for impact.