National Farmers Federation annual congress: The road map to $100 billion

Australia’s agricultural sector has been warned it will have to change radically if it’s to become a $100 billion industry by 2030.

Man in the paddock

Australia’s booming agricultural sector has been warned it will have to change radically if it is to become a $100 billion industry by 2030.

Darryl Quinlivan, head of the federal Department of Agriculture and Water, said that tied up in the current positive political and industry buzz about agriculture’s bright future, was an underlying assumption that significantly growing national food production would be easy.

But Mr Quinlivan, addressing the National Farmers Federation (NFF) annual congress in Canberra, cautioned against taking food production growth for granted.

He said that while the $60 billion Australian agricultural sector was worth more now than a decade ago, total food and fibre output in terms of volume had “hardly shifted.”

He said the growing importance of agriculture to the national economy was almost entirely dependent on rising commodity prices, not greater productivity by Australia’s 85,000 farmers.

The NFF today unveiled a “road map” to ensure agriculture is valued at more than $100b within 12 years, with target goals including carbon neutrality, doubled food production, 25 per cent more jobs, zero on-farm work deaths, a switch towards 50 per cent renewable energy use, better water efficiency and less food waste.

“Yet we have had pretty much no growth in production since 2007; agriculture might appear to be performing well but it is mostly price driven,” Mr Quinlivan said.

“So we cant take (production) growth for granted - it is not a natural progression going by past figures; a road map to $100b needs to reflect on the issues behind (low production growth) and what might be needed to substantially grow food production.”

Mr Quinlivan warned agricultural expansion would also be confronting, with industry winners and losers rather than a universal boom.

He said some traditional industries and farming areas might constrict and transform quite substantially - as is now occurring in the irrigated dairy zones - as scarce irrigation water in the Murray Darling Basin moves to high value horticulture.

The chief agricultural bureaucrat also said Australia could not rely on its clean green food-safe brand, since only one or two bad operators doing the wrong thing could irreparably damage that reputation.

“I would say we are going just OK on most fronts; but that is not enough,” Mr Quinlivan said.

“We are poised to win on price (gains) in global food and fibre markets, but more of the same will fall short of what should be possible in terms of production without transformational change.”

The executive chair of global food and packaging company Visy, Anthony Pratt, called on the government to focus on better water management to help achieve agriculture’s $100b goal.

His own five-point water plan included making better use of underground water, including the vast Great Artesian Basin, for irrigation expansion, more investment in regional water infrastructure, more co-operation with water-efficiency-use leaders such as Israel and California, and a greater focus on soil practices to improve water capture and retention.

“Getting it (water management) right will need a constancy of focus and an “all-of-society” commitment,” Mr Pratt said.

“As a nation we must plan for the future: if we can invest $30 billion Sydney rail, surely regional Australia needs that investment too.”

NFF President Fiona Simson said the $100b growth plan would provide certainty for potential investors in agriculture, and show farmers that change is both necessary and inevitable.

“We can’t keep doing things as we have; we have to shake it up and be innovative and different to get to a $100 billion industry,” Ms Simson said.

“It’s not just what we grow, how we grow it and here we farm; it’s how we deal with the megatrends such as sustainability, climate change, use of capital and community expectations and whether, with planning, they can become opportunities for agricultural growth rather than roadblocks.”

Federal Agriculture minister David Littleproud called on the farm sector to be “loud and proud” about what it does.

“We produce the best, most environmentally and ethically sustainable food and fibre I. The world; never forget that,” Mr Littleproud told the NFF congress.