Australian farmers are on the frontline of climate extremes and global food insecurity.

A new $4.95 million research hub led by Monash Business School aims to transform the way food is grown, distributed and sustained, using digital technologies to build resilience from the ground up.

Associate Professor Jagjit Plahe, from the Department of Management, is part of the team driving the initiative, led by Monash University’s Faculty of Engineering.

She says the ARC Research Hub in Cyber-Farming for Sustainable and Resilient Agriculture will apply technology differently – not just to optimise yield, but to make farming systems more sustainable, equitable and community-focused.

“Farmers live difficult lives, even in Australia,” Jagjit says.

“They’re highly dependent on the weather, often in debt, and under pressure from supermarkets – and then climate change makes everything harder,” she says.

“They’re the first to be hit, yet they’re the ones who feed us.”

Confronting agriculture’s wicked problems

Jagjit says the stakes could not be higher.

Agriculture faces four interconnected challenges: climate change, labour shortages, degraded soils, and food waste.

“Agriculture is incredibly vulnerable to climate change – floods, fires, high winds,” she explains.

“In Australia we export a large portion of our food, and both our farmers and systems are highly exposed to these risks. This is what we call a wicked problem.

“The challenge is how to reduce food waste and, importantly, how to use waste from farming systems to regenerate them.”

Labour shortages and declining productivity are compounding the pressure, industrial farming has depleted soils, and monoculture and chemical overuse continue to erode biodiversity.

At the same time, “enormous amounts of food are wasted at multiple points along the chain”.

“The challenge is how to reduce food waste and, importantly, how to use waste from farming systems to regenerate them,” she says.

At the heart of the hub’s work is data which draws information directly from ecosystems.

“Our engineers at Monash will develop devices and sensors to generate real-time data from the soil itself and from the landscape,” Jagjit says.

These sensors will measure everything from moisture and carbon levels to nitrogen and insect activity.

“Imagine a farmer being able to check these details on their phone. This technology has the potential to support not just large-scale industrial farms, but also smallholder farmers,” she adds.

Building resilience through technology and partnerships

For Jagjit what matters most is ensuring the technology is ethical and inclusive.

“The vision is to ensure technology is developed ethically and equitably,” she says.

“Co-designed with farmers, tested in the field, and refined based on feedback – user-friendly platforms which genuinely meet farmer needs.”

Looking ahead, the hub has a five-year funding horizon, but its ambitions are far bigger.

“The dream is by the end of those five years we’ll see tangible changes: reduced use of chemicals, smarter water use, healthier soils, less waste in the system,” she says.

“More broadly, we want the Hub’s work to have global impact, boosting productivity, reducing stress for farmers, and building resilience against climate change.”

For Jagjit the motivation is also deeply personal.

“As a researcher, it’s the chance to make a difference. If the impact of this work improves even one farmer’s life, that’s incredibly rewarding.”