Adelaide, February 17, 2026 – In a bold move to supercharge Australia’s agricultural powerhouse, the Australasian Space Innovation Institute (ASII) has unveiled its first major project: a $15 million National Digital Twin for Australian Agriculture.
This sovereign, AI-powered geospatial platform promises to fuse satellite data, IoT sensors, climate models, and agronomic insights into a living virtual replica of the nation’s vast farmlands, fisheries, and forests.
The independent not-for-profit ASII, dedicated to converting cutting-edge space research into practical solutions, positions the digital twin as a “whole-of-agriculture” game-changer. By creating a shared digital environment, it enables coordinated decision-making at a national scale, tackling pressing challenges like climate volatility, biosecurity threats, water scarcity, and productivity slumps. Stakeholders from farmers to policymakers can now simulate scenarios—such as drought impacts on livestock yields or pest outbreaks in wheat belts—testing strategies virtually before real-world deployment.
Backed by heavyweights Elders, Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), and Charles Sturt University (CSU), the initiative arrives amid intensifying global pressures on food security. Australia’s agriculture sector, which exports $80 billion annually and employs one in 10 workers, faces erratic weather and supply chain disruptions. The digital twin acts as a “living R&D engine,” slashing innovation risks and timelines. Imagine modeling a new irrigation technique across 1,000 virtual farms: AI predicts outcomes, refines variables, and flags pitfalls, potentially saving millions in field trials.
ASII’s founding CEO and Managing Director, Professor Andy Koronios, hailed it as the “missing layer” in Australia’s agri-strengths. “We have world-class capability in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, but no shared national platform for decision-ready insights,” he told this exclusive briefing. “This sovereign AI environment lets us model scenarios, test outcomes, and optimize for productivity, resilience, and policy. As national infrastructure for public good, it’s best stewarded by an independent institute like ASII.”
Industry leaders echoed the enthusiasm. MLA Managing Director Mick Crowley emphasized virtual R&D’s efficiency: “We can hypothesis-test livestock management in a replica environment—refining trials before big investments. This could save years and dollars versus traditional methods, boosting deployment confidence.”
CSU Vice Chancellor Professor Renée Leon spotlighted data integration: “Our Australian Agricultural Data Exchange already unifies fragmented datasets. Paired with the digital twin, it transforms them into trusted, scalable outcomes for research, industry, and policy—equipping experts for smarter experimentation.”
Elders MD and CEO Mark Allison, an ASII board member, focused on on-ground impact: “Our edge is people and farmer relationships. This gives agronomists nationally consistent intelligence to test ideas pre-paddock, strengthening advice while keeping human judgment central.”
The project’s timing is prescient. With El Niño patterns lingering and trade tensions rising, the digital twin bolsters resilience—predicting floods’ toll on cotton crops or optimizing fisheries amid ocean warming. ASII envisions it scaling to Indo-Pacific partners, amplifying Australia’s space leadership.
Founded to bridge end-users, industry, and academia, ASII drives sovereign space capabilities for economic, environmental, and societal gains. Visit asiinstitute.org for updates.
This exclusive signals a new era: agriculture not just enduring, but thriving through space-AI fusion.
