Agricultural Economics Society Conference

As a representative of the Enhanced Risk Analysis Tools (CRC10010) and Early Warning for Pre-Emergent Plant Pests (CRC10001) projects, I was fortunate enough to travel to the United Kingdom and Ireland on a CRCNPB travel grant to take part in the Agricultural Economics Society Annual Conference. This was held at the Irish Management Institute south of Dublin. The two-day conference (31 March-1 April) was a wonderful opportunity to discuss the work being done by the CRCNPB with the European agricultural economics community.

The invited sessions of the conference were extremely interesting. I found the session by Sir Gordon Conway (Chief Advisor Department for International Development) very informative. His views on climate change were very compelling. The presentation he gave highlighted the adaptive practices that are steadily improving the resilience of communities in the developing world. I also found the AES Presidential Address by Professor Alan Swinbank (Reading University) concerning the European Union's complex bioenergy policies highly enlightening.

Over the course of the conference I had the opportunity of networking with many interesting researchers. This gave me the chance to speak in more detail about CRCNPB projects and to learn more about what other relevant research is taking place, so perhaps we can work together in the future.

Before departing for Ireland I spent some time in WA talking to Professor Ben White (UWA) about collaborative work on broad acre pest management model for a new project entitled 'Optimal Investment in R&D for Plant Biosecurity, CRC70100'.

I would like to thank the CRCNPB for their investment in this travel, as I found it an extremely rewarding trip, and I intend to make the most of the opportunities it has presented.