Lessons from the tropics – plant diversity, unusual and changeable plant pathology, horizontal resistance, and the plight of farmers

Abstract

It is a great honour to be asked to pay tribute to DanielMcAlpine, the first government plant pathologist inVictoria and the father of the science of plant pathology inAustralia. From 1889 to 1911 he published six beautifully illustrated and comprehensive books – ‘Fungus diseases of citrus trees in Australia’ (McAlpine 1889), ‘Systematic arrangement of Australian fungi’ (McAlpine 1895), ‘Fungus diseases of stone-fruit trees in Australia’ (McAlpine 1902), ‘The rusts of Australia’ (McAlpine 1906), ‘The smuts of Australia’ (McAlpine 1910), and ‘Handbook of fungus diseases of the potato in Australia’ (McAlpine 1911) – that are still useful today. Employed by the government in a permanent job and trusted to get on and do the work unencumbered by bureaucracy, hewas incredibly productive.One of the great impediments to the conduct of science in Australia today is the lack of permanent positions for scientists, evident in our own profession of crop protection. With the privatisation of government functions under economic ‘rationalism’, science was one of the areas in which governments reduced their support.Henceforth, sciencewas to be supported by grants from the industries that were expected to benefit from it. This has meant that our best and brightest young scientists, following about 8 years of dedicated education in science (a 4-year first degree followed by about 4 years for a PhD), are forced to subsist on an endless round of short-term contracts of uncertain future. They do not have the security of a continuing job in, for example, aDepartment ofAgriculture or the CSIRO, as the graduates of my generation in the 1970s had. This is an insult to these highly educated and dedicated young people, whocan spendyears going fromone3-year post-doctoral position to another before finally getting a permanent position; often they have to move from research into administration to finally gain some security. This discourages bright young people from taking up science, and it ensures that research is concentrated on shortterm problems of dubious worth, rather than fostering the longterm research that is really needed in most fields. This is holding back scientific research in Australia. It is nonsense. Governments must get back into the business of providing careers in science, as they did so well from Daniel McAlpine’s appointment in 1890 until the 1990s.