How much will we pay?

Every year I see many crops abandoned when it is no longer economic to harvest the remaining tomatoes, capsicum, cucumbers, eggplant or zucchini because the market price will not pay the cost of labour to harvest the produce.

There are some years when perishable crops like tomatoes rot in the field because the farmers are unable to obtain itinerant labour to harvest the produce.

The issue is not a lack of arable land or water to grow fruit and vegetables. The issue is the price that farmers receive for their produce. The issue is the availability of itinerant labour to harvest produce.

Many of the original settlers in Australia were of convict origin, as were six of my forebears. They were people who due to poverty became petty thieves in an endeavour to feed their families. Once free in Australia they were able to obtain paid work, buy land and feed growing families. Never again were any of them convicted of a criminal offence.

Starting with the loss of young men from the land during World War I and the drift of country youth to the cities that continues today, Australia has become an urban population.

Once city people grew vegetables, nourished a lemon tree and kept poultry in back yards. They watered these in buckets with their grey water or from rain water tanks. This was labour intensive work. As wages rose and rural produce, by comparison, dropped in price it was no longer an economic necessity for families to maintain such a lifestyle.

I believe that Australian farmers have the capacity to more than double the production of beef, lamb, pork and poultry meats, dairy products, fruit and vegetables, grains and sugar if there is sufficient price incentive. Australian farmers are the most efficient in the world. They have survived only due to increasing their productivity. They are well educated and use modern technology.

Australian farmers will cope with droughts and floods as they have always done, if they can sell their produce for an equitable price.

When I was a child cattle and sheep died during times of drought because there was no transport available to take them to other regions. Nor was there transport to bring in supplementary foods such as grain and hay. Now livestock can be placed in feedlots and fattened with grain and hay from other regions providing the market will pay the cost of the finished product.

As a child our property was reliant on creek or well water, but due to the construction of many small farm dams farmers are now able to maintain water supplies for longer periods of dry weather. It isn’t generally recognised, but these farm dams have also enabled several species of Australian birds and animals to multiply. Many cattlemen know they are feeding and watering more kangaroos than their land could carry 100 years ago. Kangaroos could become a future source of protein.

Australians will grow rice in traditional areas like the Murray-Darling Basin if they have water, or they could open up new regions to production if the price is right. Back in 1954 an experimental crop of rice was grown at Humpty Doo in the Northern Territory. This failed for a number of reasons, including flocks of birds that ate the grain, but it proved that rice could be grown in northern Australia.

Australians farmers can grow much more sugar in northern Australia, provided they receive an equitable price for their product.