"We need to stop fiddling on the edges, and create vigorous, stable farming practices in which profitable production rests firmly on sustainable processes."

This is the blunt warning to Australian farmers from Dr John Williams, Deputy Chief of CSIRO Land and Water, on the eve of the National Landcare Conference, being held in Adelaide on Wednesday.

"Change will have to occur, both technological and social. CSIRO is providing the scientific principles to establish the environment in which this change will happen," he says. "Research into the impacts of salinity, soil erosion and pollutant movement to waterways underpin the Landcare movement."

Dr Williams says that genetic improvement of crops or animals will have little benefit if productivity is constrained by land degradation.

"The Australian irony is that whilst our agricultural productivity is constrained by lack of water and nutrients, a fundamental cause of much of our land degradation is an excess of water and loss of nutrients at key periods of the year. We will need to change our whole farming system in order to manage these processes more efficiently."

A multi-divisional program at CSIRO is comparing the economic benefit of farming and grazing against the risk of land and water degradation on farms. Research is also finding ways to evaluate the effects of farming on salinity in catchments, and on pollutant, nutrient and sediment movement to rivers and wetlands.

Research results are delivered to the community in a number of ways, including a new book being released called "Farming Action, Catchment Reaction", of which Dr Williams is a main author.

Dr Williams will be attending the National Landcare Conference in Adelaide this week, and has been asked to wrap up the conference with a summary address on Friday.

More information:
John Williams: (08) 8303 8405 or mobile 0419 253 915
Simon Torok: 018 481 203