Farmers are not bludging off land
Feature Article in The Canberra Times
Published: 24 October 2006
by
David Crombie
President
National Farmers’ Federation
RECENT claims against farming have made for entertaining and dramatic headlines, but
there’s nothing funny about the plight of drought-stricken farmers or the notion that the
contribution farming makes to the economic, environmental and social lifeblood of all
Australians can be dismissed on a whim.
Often you can forgive ill-informed ideologues or armchair critics in their over-zealous fervour
to come up with ‘a new angle’, and sometimes you can’t. A few facts may lend some clarity
and context to the issues.
Firstly, Exceptional Circumstance (EC) payments are not ‘hand-outs’. EC is, effectively,
Newstart Allowance to put food on the table and pay the bills, along with an interest rate
subsidy to help manage farm debt.
But, unlike normal unemployment benefits, there is a catch to EC, there is a stringent
‘viability test’ attached to ensure unviable farms are not being artificially propped up.
In fact, over the last 20 years Australian farmers have simultaneously achieved the highest
rate of productivity growth of any sector of the Australian economy – averaging annual
growth of 3.8%, while the sector has seen greater consolidation.
While this consolidation has seen a 25% reduction in the number of farms, it is often younger
farmers who are buying properties to expand and diversify their operations into larger family
farms. Far from resisting rationalistion of the farm sector, this movement has given modern
farming a great boost.
So EC is the same safety net anyone else in the community would get if they found
themselves out of work, only for farmers it’s harder to get because they have to prove they
have a viable farm.
It has also erroneously been cited that agriculture contributes 3% of GDP. This is based on
value at the farm gate – $36 billion-a-year and over 330,000 direct jobs. The inference around
this is that farming isn’t such a big deal, so why the rush to bail farmers out?
But this ignores the vital flow-on effects through the economy, which sees agriculture account
for 12% of GDP, $103 billion-a-year in production and 1.6 million jobs.
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In short, without farming, 12% of GDP would be at risk – that includes 1.6 million Australian
jobs, half of which we know are in Australia’s capital cities. That would be an economic and
social disaster on a scale we have not seen before in this country.
Of course, the critics turn to water, literally, when harping on about water use. Agricultural
production uses a lot of land and water to produce the food Australians eat. A massive 70% of
everything we produce in farming heads overseas – vital income for the nation. But the
remaining 30% is what we consume right here at home.
Human need doesn’t get any more basic than food on the table and Australian agriculture is
the source of most of the fresh, clean, naturally produced and competitively priced food
Australian’s value.
Water is our – Australia and farmers’ – most valuable commodity. Does anyone seriously
think farmers waste it? The critics resort to attacking crops like rice, often pilloried as the
worst example of water efficiency.
But did you know that rice farmers are the absolute last to receive water in the supply chain?
They grow an opportunist crop… meaning they only plant when they can get the water. So
they are not taking water from anyone. Needless to say, there probably wont be much rice
around next year.
It’s also worth pointing out that Australian rice forms the staple diet of 40 million people
around the world, directly employs 8,000 Australians, generates $800 million per annum in
production, $400 million from exports, and over the last 10 years the sector has improved its
water use efficiency by 60%.
The fact is criticism of agriculture’s commitment to Natural Resource Management (NRM) is
based on out-dated misconceptions and misinformation peddled by those with their head in
the sand.
Farmers, who occupy and manage 60% of Australia’s landmass, know only too well that their
future is inextricably linked to sound environmental management. That is why, according to
the Australian Bureau of Statistics, farmers spent $3.3 billion on NRM in 2004-05 alone –
over $1.1 billion on weed prevention and management and $900 million on land and soilrelated activities.
In fact, it is little recognised that Australian farmers plant over 20 million trees for
conservation reasons each year. NRM practices are in place on 86% of Australian farms, with
92% of farmers undertaking activity to prevent or manage natural resource issues.
Farmers recognise environmentally-sustainable farm practices are essential and have been
engaged in developing and planting drought-resistant crop varieties and pioneering new
irrigation systems that target water where and when it is needed, as well as a raft of ecofriendly farm practices.
Instead of ploughing four or five times a year, more and more farmers now use conservation
tillage techniques to protect the soil structure, harness soil moisture and minimise erosion.
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Australia is a harsh continent. It always has been and always will be.
Our climate has always been a challenge, but one that farmers have always met – successfully
achieving unmatched productivity growth, employing well over one million Australians –
across our cities and regions, earning vital export income for the nation and, not least of all,
putting food on the national dinner table.
The worst drought on record presents new challenges and pressures, especially on the back of
several continuous dry seasons. Even the best farm management practices cannot fend-off the
ravages of drought under the current circumstances.
The question is, do we, as a nation, throw our hands up in the air and say farming isn’t worth
the effort or do we dig in and make sure Australia continues to have a sound agricultural
base?
Australian farmers are resilient. Despite common misconceptions, Government support for
Australian farms represents just 4% of farming income. By comparison, according to the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in the United States it’s 17%, in
the European Union it’s 31%, and in Japan it’s some 56%.
To make the point clear, Australian farmers are the least protected in the world.
We’re not looking for ‘handouts’ – just the recognition that all Australians need to pull
together to get through the worst drought on record so we can emerge the other side strong
and productive.
Farmers aren’t whinging about the drought. I know, and farmers need to be reassured, that
ordinary Australians recognise the vital contribution farming makes to this country.
Despite the negative fervour of a few critics, farming is a mainstay of Australian ingenuity,
adaptability and enterprise. Giving up on farming is not an option any of us can afford to
contemplate.
[ENDS]
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