NearinfraredspectroscopyAkey.PDF

Hirschfeld Award Lecture Near infrared spectroscopy: A key to more food, better food and a safer environment Graeme D. Batten (Farrer Centre, School of Agriculture, Charles Sturt University, LMB 588, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678 Australia) slowly begin to decrease from the year Preface 2020 onward. Hence, as the growth rate in the world’s more affluent nations It is a great honour to be chosen to becomes negative, all of the net annual receive the 2004 Tomas Hirschfeld gain in global population will, in effect, Award. In the last 20 years, near infra- come from the world’s developing coun- red (NIR) spectroscopy has assumed a tries.2 prominent place in my life and the activ- As the population distribution ities of my colleagues and farmers, changes around the world, there will be mostly rice producers, who applied our new challenges to agriculture to provide Tony Blakeney (L) and Graeme findings. Being part of the NIR commu- the food and shelter needs of people. Batten (R) working with a 19-filter nity has changed the way I think about Figures published by the World InfraAlyzer 450 spectrometer in the many aspects of the scientific process Resources Institute (WRI)3 show that late 1980s. and given me friends and colleagues in the total area of land used for agricul- many countries. The world is certainly a ture rose from 4.55 billion hectares in better place because of the activities of 1966 to 4.93 billion in 1996. More inten- ings, as well