THE University of Adelaide has moved to improve its relationship with the state's agribusinesses, establishing an Agribusiness Advisory Board to ensure its programs are beneficial to students and the industry.
The board, which held its second meeting on March 2, comprises a mix of farmers, agribusiness leaders, university staff and industry organisation heads.
"We've tried to get a diverse range of sectors represented - dairy, grains, wool and aquaculture - and have made a deliberate attempt to get individuals with a wide range of viewpoints," board member and business consultant Jerry Adams said.
"We wanted a mix of people with international perspectives and experience, as well as including a couple of individual producers."
Mr Adams said the university decided to establish the board to improve its ties with industry and ensure graduates were equipped for the workforce.
"We want to make sure our educational offering and research program is as relevant and valuable as it can possibly be," he said.
"If we're not engaged with the industry we're supposed to be serving, how can we be effective?
"We've got lots of high horsepower intellectual capability, but we must be focused on how we can deliver the highest quality outcomes.
"Through this board, the industry will give us advice, and hopefully will also help us increase our engagement with industry - not just through their input on the board but through hosting students on internships.
"The industry will be able to tap into research being done, and will also be able to provide input into new project directions or help fund research that they wouldn't be able to do on their own, but that is of direct benefit to them. It'll help us make sure we're researching the things that will actually be used by agribusinesses in the long run," he said.
Mr Adams said improving links between agribusinesses and the university could bring unexpected benefits.
"At the university we have such a breadth of capability and knowledge on-hand, and the connections we could make that would deliver mutual benefit are not always obvious.
"Our engineering department has helped agribusinesses with the design of new or expanded facilities, and I can see plenty of opportunity for nutrition researchers to work with agribusinesses to tweak the nutritional benefits of some of the food products produced here in SA. Industry doesn't always think about engaging with the university for some of these things - we'd like to change that," he said.
Mr Adams said board members' determination to make a difference was evident from the outset, with significant progress made.
"At our first meeting, we asked the board members what they thought the biggest issues facing agribusiness were, and three ideas from that are being turned into potential research projects," he said.
"The board members were keen to learn more about robotics and opportunities for mechanisation, so we had a speaker on drones come and present at our most recent board meeting.
"They also wanted to look into alternative ownership and management structures. We're finding that small farms appear to struggle more than larger farms, so we want to find out how we can encourage the trend towards consolidation to take place more humanely without negative effects on the small farmers.
"The third issue - and possibly one with the biggest impact - was red tape, and more specifically, if we could look to improve efficiencies and production levels through changes in regulation."