WITH more unusual ventures appearing on the agricultural landscape, DAVID McKENZIE profiles some of the "emerging" activities and the people who've taken them on.

Truffles, wasabi and crayfish.

Sounds like something on an exotic restaurant menu, not what you'd expect to find on an Australian farm.

Yet these and a long list of other "new" crops and animals are bobbing up around the countryside.

We know this courtesy of the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, which has been keeping tabs on "emerging" rural industries over the past decade.

In its latest publication, RIRDC has profiled 29 selected industries that it says could have a production value of more than $900 million.

Compared with the last stock-take five years ago, the figure has grown by some $240 million, or more than a third.

In the overall scheme of things, these statistics might seem trifling, often servicing small "niche" demand for new types of foods and health products.

But as RIRDC managing director Dr Peter O'Brien points out, the true figure could be a lot higher.

And the real significance of these new industries is that they offer important openings for diversification.

"This is particularly so for farmers whose traditional industries and markets have collapsed or who want to spread their risk," Dr O'Brien said.

The economics are not always plain sailing, with production and marketing challenges often dogging "new" industries.

And it's often "hobby" farmers who take them as part of a lifestyle choice.

According to RIRDC, most of the "new" production - $670 million - is in various crops and plants.

Australian native plants - bush foods, native flowers and essential oils - figure prominently.

So too do tree nuts such as chestnuts, almonds and hazelnuts, culinary herbs and spices, tropical fruits and Asian vegetables such as wasabi and wombok.

Olives are becoming part of the landscape - sometimes controversially - in some regions, while pulses such as lentils are "cropping up".

And there's a sprinkling of the more exotic - truffles, and the medicinal oil-producing plant, jojoba.

Valued conservatively at $270 million by RIRDC, new livestock industries are less extensive.

Some are based on culling of kangaroos, wallabies, pigs, camels and possums.

But a range of "new" animals are also appearing on-farm. Emus, ostriches and alpacas are best known, but there are also buffaloes, deer, crocodiles and rabbits.

Sheep and goats are being farmed for milk as well as meat and fibre, while game birds - squab, guinea fowl, partridge, spatchcock and pheasant - are also making a mark on-farm.

So too is aquaculture, with everything from trout to crayfish in farm dams.