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Students in Sydney, Australia.

Students in Sydney, Australia.

Learning Down Under

Exploring Agriculture in Australia

By: Patrick McKee
Photos By: Megan Pollok 

Australia is one of the major agricultural producers in the world, generating $155 billion a year and contributing 12 percent to the nation’s gross domestic product.  

To learn about the nation’s practices and educational system, a group of students, led by Professor Ozzie Abaye, studied abroad there.

More than 60 percent of Australia’s land is used for farming, producing a wide range of cereal crops, oil crops, and grain legumes.  

Graduate student Owen Turner said this was a driving factor in choosing to take part in the program. “Their economy is heavily ag based,” Turner said. “They are a big exporter. If you are going to study abroad anywhere while having an ag focus, Australia was a good choice.”

Junior Megan Pollok signed up for the trip to see agriculture in action firsthand. “Learning in the classroom was very helpful,” Pollok said. “It is nothing like seeing the real thing. Because their climate changes so much, there were so many opportunities to see so many different crops within the span of ten days, which would be very hard to do here.”

On the Farm

To study the agricultural systems in Australia, the group toured several different farms in several regions in the country.

One thing they noticed was the different climates. “The climate in Australia is much more diverse than it is in the U.S.,” said Pollok. “As you go along the coast, it changes a lot.”

According to the World Bank, Australia is the driest inhabited continent in the world with temperature and rainfall varying across the country from year to year.

The southeastern part of the country has an arid or semi-arid climate, with the northeastern section having a tropical savanna climate with high humidity and a distinct wet and dry season. The southern and western parts of the country have an arid climate with most of the rainfall happening along the southern coast.

This variability in climate allows for different crop production.

The students recalled learning about fava beans, legumes, and cotton in Temora, an interior city of New South Wales, about 300 miles from the coast. In Cairns, a coastal city in Queensland, they saw sugar cane, coffee, mangoes, and other fruit crops being grown.

Due to climate variability, water resources can be scarce.  

According to the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, 60 percent of the water, available for human use, is utilized by irrigated agriculture.

Because of this, states and territories allocate water, with farmers, sometimes, having to decide whether to grow crops or sell water rights.

“Sometimes it is more profitable to sell water resources than to use resources to produce cotton,” Pollok said. “That is not something we think about here on the east coast. I feel like it would be less common for them to sell and not produce at all. I feel like they would try to make other arrangements.”

Students also observed how farmers are more engaged in research, as there is less government support than in the U.S.  

“Farmers in Australia will take a percentage of some of the profits from their crops and put into these research organizations and institutions,” Pollok said. “I think they have an even larger stake.”

“Here in the U.S., we have land grant universities, Extension programs, and depending on the crop, more or less subsidies,” Turner said. “We have all of these support structures funded by the government to help farmers survive and make a living.”

Farmers told the students, the system in Australia spurs innovation and creativity.

They toured the Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute, an experimental farm established in 1892. There, they were able to see researchers at work on 893 hectares of farmland. 

“It was really interesting to hear how they involve their students in their research and the different projects they have been working on,” Pollok said.

In the Classroom

Students visited the University of Sydney and talked to faculty, staff, and students to get an in‑depth look at university life there.

Due to its urban setting, some students were surprised to see that the school had an agriculture program. “When you think about agriculture and universities, you think about more rural areas,” Pollok said. “Sydney is a very large city.” Greater Sydney has a population of 5.2 million people, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Students observed that a college education in Australia differs from Virginia Tech. 

“All of their students in the college of agriculture have to double major,” Pollok said.

“You get much more exposure to lots of things that are in ag, but not as specialized as it is here at Virginia Tech,” Turner said. “I don’t know if that is better or worse. I guess it kind of depends on what you want.”

Great Barrier Reef

One of the seven wonders of the natural world, the Great Barrier Reef, spans more than 1,800 miles. It was listed by UNESCO in 1981 as a World Heritage Site.

While on their tour of Australia, students took time to explore the beautiful site.

“Going to see the great barrier reef was an incredible experience,” Turner said. “The fact that I got to see that, at least for me, was pretty important.”

“That was one of my favorite parts of the trip,” Pollok agreed. “It was really interesting to learn about the wildlife component. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

There is concern that climate change could cause the coral reefs to disappear.

“With increasing CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, that will result in ocean acidification,” Turner explained. “That CO2 will begin to absorb into the water and coral is pretty sensitive to that.”

While there are concerns about the future of reef, work is being done in an effort to preserve it. The Australian government has committed more than $1.3 billion to address threats.

“It is exciting to see they are embracing those challenges and trying to combat that,” Pollok said.

Takeaways

Both students agree this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  

 “It made me think beyond what I was thinking before and it made me more excited about agriculture and agronomy specifically,” Pollok said. “It was fulfilling and rewarding for me to learn about agriculture systems in another country. I feel like it is something you can read about and understand, but you can never fully grasp until you are there and you are having conversations with these people and you are speaking to them firsthand.”

She encourages everyone to consider future opportunities, saying, “Do anything you can to make that trip possible. Chances are, once you finish with your education, it is going to be more difficult for you to travel on your own.”

Turner was struck by how connected Australians are to the food chain, saying, “In the U.S., a large majority of the population is removed from that. In Australia, the general population as a whole is much more connected or intertwined with that. Even if they are not, they are very aware of what is involved to put food on their plate.”

Even though students noticed differences between Australia and the U.S., they say one thing remains the same.

“When I meet people from different parts of the world, it reinforces this idea that, no matter where you are from or what your background is, at the core, people are just people,” Turner said. “Any time you go and have an experience like this, it just kind of reminds you of that.”