When considering the extent to which farming systems can be transferred to other countries, however, it is important to bear in mind their social and economic as well as their technological features. The characteristics which combined to ensure the success of Australian farming systems included the following:

• the existence of a relatively prosperous, literate and educated farming community
  with strong traditional links with British and European agriculture and a well
  organized political influence;


• the support of a variety of national fiscal, taxation, drought relief and credit meas
  ures made possible by the economic growth of urbanized and industrial Australia
  and her wealth of minerals and energy;


• an appropriate system of land tenure;
  the development of an effective network of rail, road, air and electronic communi
  cations throughout Australia's sparsely populated rural areas;


• the formation of an effective network of educational, research, extension, market
  ing and commercial services to meet the needs of the farming community;


• the recruitment from overseas, as immigrants, of many well-trained and experienced
  agricultural and veterinary scientists;


• and a mixed and stable community comparatively free from serious disruption
  caused by political, religious, ethnic or economic differences
.

6 The developments that enabled wheat farmers to improve their yields, grain quality and production efficiencies included improved varieties, fertilizers, weed and disease control and cultivation practices. However, the most obvious innovations involved changes from draught power, to steam engines, to combine harvesters.

Because no other developing country shares all these characteristics with Australia, together with similar climates, soils, vegetation and ecological conditions, it follows that farming systems developed specifically for Australia are unlikely to be suited to the needs of others. Nevertheless, many of the specialist and technological aspects of Australian farming systems are readily transferable and some of the supporting policies, attitudes and infrastructures of proven value in Australia may also have wider application.

For these reasons Australian agricultural scientists have often been recruited to those international organizations (e.g. the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the United Nations Development Program) which are involved in world agricultural development.

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering