Research, development and extension (RD&E) have served the agricultural industries well in the past. Productivity gains until the turn of the century were at double the rates of the national economy. However these gains have stalled over the last decade, in part due to the millennium drought but there is real slowdown as well. The fact that these are effects globally is little comfort to the Australian producer. At the same time we see extension moving from the public to the private sector and that raises issues about the objectivity and currency of that extension and there are no quality assurance systems in place for such advice. Snake oil has never had a better run in our industries than now. R&D is increasingly based on short-term funding and the career prospects for new researchers are poor. The ability to attract quality scientists through the education (E) system has been compromised by the low numbers of students attracted to university agriculture studies in recent times and the buoyant job market in industry. Research scholar stipends are not competitive with industry opportunities and the research job prospects are not enticing. There are some clear challenges ahead in the Research, Development, Extension and Education (RD&E2) matrix and ignoring them will significantly hamper the prospects for our agricultural industries to seize the opportunities ahead in Asia and elsewhere.