‘Hard look’ needed into farmer lobby groups

Farmer representative bodies need to “have a hard look within themselves” to see if they’re doing the best job for their members, GrainGrowers chair Rhys Turton says.

Farmer representative bodies need to “have a hard look within themselves” to see if they’re doing the best job for their members, GrainGrowers chair Rhys Turton says.

Speaking on The Australian Ag Podcast this week, the York, Western Australia farmer said while the grains industry was well represented as a stand-alone industry, national lobby groups have faced some challenges.

“I think there’s been some head-on run-ins with the federal government, particularly with the National Farmers’ Federation, and this has had ramifications for individual state members as well,” he said.

“I think a hard look is needed at structures; membership rates and values; what people are paying; and I think individual members need to determine if they’re getting value for money from their peak bodies.

“I dare say if you are not assiduous in how you represent growers, then you’ll just see an exodus of your membership.”

His comments come after a turbulent few weeks for farm lobby groups. The NFF is looking at its structure as its members struggle with membership costs, while the Victorian Farmers Federation resigned its membership from seven national commodity groups.

GrainGrowers chair Rhys Turton. Picture: Richard Wainwright

Mr Turton said one of the major issues facing the grains industry was the quality of the road and rail network across the country, and GrainGrowers had identified a minimum of $5 billion was needed to address the issue.

“We did see the Roads to Recovery Program kick in with what appeared to be a big chunk of money, but it falls significantly short of what’s really needed to boost the industry to its maximum productivity,” he said.

“We’re missing out on efficiencies because we cannot get our product to the end user or to a port in an efficient and cost effective manner … (and the) roads are dangerous for everyone in the community. It’s a major issue.”

Mr Turton said labour shortages, input costs, and supply chain challenges as other significant challenges facing the grains industry, but said it was still sitting in a “brilliant spot”.

“We’re seeing innovation and technology allowing us to increase productivity, we’ve had some fantastic breeding of new varieties of grains, and we have access to some brilliant new chemistry that allows us to be more efficient and sustainable,” he said.

“The bigger picture for growers is that investment in technology and innovation is actually driving their businesses forward. A lot of growers are very excited.”

The Australian Ag Podcast is sponsored by Nutrien Ag Solutions, and you can listen to this week’s full episode with Rhys Turton here, on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.