A recorded speech (YouTube) by Dr. Steve Jeffries, celebrating the GRDC's 25th anniversary. Jeffries highlights GRDC's global reputation, contributions to farming practices and R&D, its continuing relevance to growers, and the importance of sustained investment in research and development. He notes his 19 years with GRDC (joined 1997) and expresses optimism for the next 25 years.
Chapters
Thank you very much and happy birthday. 25 years of amazing achievement in the grains industry. It's hard to believe when I first started farming, what I did as a farmer and now what I look at, what we do as farmers, it's amazing. Congratulations via GRDC. The fact that 25 years, they're still relevant to growers. I think it's pretty amazing to see the richness and the depth of the people in the industry that have turned up tonight. We've got people from every country, we've got producers, researchers, people in the commercial industry and everybody coming together with what is a really dynamic and vibrant industry to celebrate where it's come from and where it can go in the future. The GRDC, its current form represents 25 years of development and importantly, it's still delivering, so we might be able to grow more crops in these arid lands that comprise Australia. GRDC's research system is one that is renowned around the world and it's a model that many other countries would like to follow. The respect that we have from overseas customers, our clean, green, reliable, safe image. So with that, I'd like to welcome Richard to the platform. Thank you. This is a celebration. First and foremost, the knowledge that we're actually achieving something really significant for the industry draws a really committed and dedicated team together who enjoy working with each other. And I think that's a pretty rare thing in life, to actually work as part of a team who are all really enjoying the work they're doing. Can I just congratulate you on the success that you've delivered in the last 25 years? Can I say I warmly welcome the opportunity to enjoy watching your success over the next 25. There is absolutely no doubt the most significant thing that we can do in this country to make sure that we stay competitive is to spend money on R and D, because we'll never be the cheapest, but we certainly can be the best in the world. And that's what R and D delivers. Now. It gives me great pleasure to introduce the chief executive from the GRDC, Dr. Steve Jeffries. We're here to celebrate the achievements of GRDC in the past 25 years. To GRDC and the future. We have a very complex but a very successful farming system in Australia today, and I put that down to the effort that so many people across 25 years in the GRDC have put into our grains industry. I've been with the organisation for 19 years, so I started in 1997 at GRDC and to see the changes in the industry is absolutely fantastic. It's a vibrant, exciting industry facing a lot of challenges, but I think with the investment that we make in R and D, it's got a very, very bright future. GRDC has really been a really incredible part of the grains industry of Australia, and grain growers really appreciate.
