ABSTRACT
According to recent data, one in eight people in the world (one billion people) go hungry every day, while more than two in eight (over two billion people) live in fear of hunger or starvation (FAO, 2014). A number of factors have contributed to this problem, including population growth, 1 under-investment in agricultural research and innovation, increasing energy costs, changing climatic conditions, the degradation of natural resources, and political and economic instability. While food security is not a major issue in developed countries (although it is an issue), domestic agriculture is under threat from similar factors. For example, as the Australian Government’s 2014 Agricultural Competitiveness Green Paper recognizes, there is an urgent and ongoing domestic need to improve agricultural yields, increase sustainability, enhance and facilitate the breeding and development of new plant varieties, and assist local agriculture in adapting to climatic and environmental changes. Similar problems arise in other developing counties around the world. This is important for global food security because these issues undermine the ability of these countries to help meet the global demand for food.
