Systems Thinking: how agriculture can drive national resilience

As Australia looks to the future and seeks to build national resilience and prosperity, we know the challenges we face can’t be solved sector-by-sector.

The interconnectedness of agriculture with so many sectors places it in a unique position to help drive national resilience – not just respond to it. This creates a timely opportunity to identify where agriculture’s priorities align with national agendas to support more coordinated action.

To address long-standing calls for more coordinated, systemic change, AgriFutures, with support from the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), has initiated a project – A Systems Thinking Approach to Australian agriculture.

The project will build a practical blueprint for how agriculture can employ a missions-based approach to unlock greater innovation potential, more shared value, and identify specific opportunities for collaboration across government, industry, and the community.

What is ‘systems thinking’?

Systems thinking is a holistic approach to understanding complex situations by examining how the parts of a system interact, influence one another, and form an integrated whole. Instead of analysing components in isolation, it focuses on relationships, interconnections, and patterns of behaviour across an entire system.

In the context of agrifood systems transformation, it is a way of thinking, acting, and working together that considers the interconnections among components and outcomes across agrifood systems and interrelated systems. Its objective is to change how agrifood systems function to achieve and sustain multiple interconnected goals at scale.

Project progress

The initial phase of work has investigated and confirmed that agriculture is positioned to act as a driver of broader national outcomes. Six national level challenges have been identified where a systems approach is needed, and where agriculture can be positioned to make a significant contribution. These are:

1. Climate change and environmental resilience
2. Energy transition and emissions
3. Water security and drought
4. Supply chain resilience and food security
5. Trade and geopolitical dynamics
6. Workforce and regional communities

Next steps

The next phase of the project is focussed on structured stakeholder engagement that will validate, prioritise and refine the systemic challenges, and identify where they overlap with sectors like technology, energy, mining, health and defence.

This includes consultations and roundtables as well as interviews with global experts and the development of case studies. This is being followed by systems thinking workshops and public engagement including at evokeAG. in February 2026.

If you’re attending evokeAG., we encourage you to join the following sessions:

Panel: From the ground up: Systems thinking for food security
Tuesday, 17 February: 12.25pm – 1.10pm

Synopsis: Food security is one of the defining challenges of our time, shaped by climate, labour, trade, transport, housing and farming. When these systems fail to connect, the ripple effects are felt across communities, economies and nations. This dynamic panel of leaders will unpack why food security must be tackled through a systems lens – and how. Expect real-world examples that span from regional communities to national policy and discover what happens when broad national priorities collide with the realities of food production.

Workshop: From silos to systems: Designing the future of Australia’s agriculture and food system
Wednesday, 18 February: 2pm – 3.30pm

Synopsis: In this hands-on workshop, delegates will use systems thinking to explore where Australia’s agrifood system can drive national economic, environmental and social impact. Expect practical mapping, sharp conversations and rapid insights, with outcomes feeding directly into AgriFutures’ national project, A Systems Thinking Approach to Australian Agriculture, creating an open pathway for collaboration and contribution, shaping the next phase of agricultural innovation, together.