KEY POINTS:
AgResearch boss Andy West hopes this year's Budget will contain a much-needed fillip for farm science.
However, the Government has a long way to go if it's to reach funding levels last seen in the early 1990s.
Pre-Budget announcements from Agriculture Minister Jim Anderton have so far unveiled $1 million a year for research into climate change, $1 million for a primary industries summit and $2.3 million over four years to help rural communities bounce back from natural disasters.
But what West really wants is the Government to improve on last year's $4 million increase in the agricultural science spend which, matched by industry funding, was allocated in April to two AgResearch projects.
"My hope would be that this $8.5 million over four years is repeated this year but I'd like it to be a bigger sum."
West said industry peak body Pastoral 21 - which AgResearch helped Fonterra set up in 2005 - had put more of its own money on the table this year and asked the Government to match it one for one.
"Industry normally asks two for one from government for on-farm funding".
With a "golden age in agriculture" looming, West said it was vital to return agricultural R&D to the levels of the early 1990s, which he estimated would be around $130 million a year in today's currency. Between 1992 and 2005, on-farm R&D funding has been cut by 37 per cent in real terms to around $50 million annually.
However, to do that today would mean boosting last year's Budget increase of $4 million for agricultural science by $56 million a year, he said.
"Imagine what we could do behind the farmgate in terms of reducing environmental impact including methane and producing a lot more beef per hectare?"
