Farmers Ask For Future Focus

Despite the myriad of challenges farmers have faced over recent years, they have demonstrated their ability to grow and succeed, but now they need a little help to unleash the future of the agricultural industry.

NSW Farmers President James Jackson said their pre-budget submission to the State Government outlined a number of opportunities to invest in a bigger, stronger future for the sector.

“There is enormous potential to grow agriculture and repair the economy, but we are now reaching the point where we need investment in projects and opportunities to unlock that potential,” Mr Jackson said.

“This is why NSW Farmers has given the state government a number of budget requests, so we can get on with setting our sector up for a brighter future.”

The requests range from continuing the highly successful Young Farmers program to investing in research and development and putting an end to costly land-use conflicts.

Mr Jackson said sorting out often messy land use space was critical as the race was on to develop more housing and renewable energy, but once you put houses, power lines or solar panels on a piece of farming land it ceased to be productive agricultural land.

“Since they’re not making any more dirt, we can’t afford to waste it,” he said.

“We’ve been pretty clear in our representations to the state government about sorting this out, we’ve got a plan and a solution and we’re willing to lead the way.”

“Farmers are in the business of feeding and clothing people, whether that’s steaks or soybeans or woolly jumpers, and since there’s an increasing number of people there’s an increasing opportunity for agriculture.”

NSW Farmers Harden Branch Chair Ralph Gebhardt said that the agricultural industry needed fresh blood.

“I’ve been in agriculture for 40 plus years and I’ve seen an enormous number of changes in that time,” Mr Gebhardt said.

“We’re at a stage in agriculture where a lot of people have left. At meetings, you’ll see a lot of middle to late aged farmers who are all very knowledgeable about agriculture, but they’re often very set in their ways. We need the young ones coming out of universities. They tend to think outside of the box. They don’t come with preconceived ideas of what agriculture should be. We’re here to produce food and clothing and we can be very self-centred in that production.”

Our farmers have things to think about from the moment they wake up until they go to sleep at night. They don’t tend to get out there with placards calling for a fair go - they leave that to others and get on with the business of producing.

There aren’t many big industries you can invest money into and watch it grow these days, but agriculture is one.

• Topics:

• Agriculture
• Farming