Safeguarding Your Crops: Strategies for Resilient Farming

Posted on: September 12, 2024

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Safeguarding Your Crops: Strategies for Resilient Farming

Australian crop farmers are already resilient, but there’s more to consider than just environmental issues and climate change.

These other factors can impact crop growers’ capacity to adjust to and maintain productivity:

• Having water security
• Diversifying farming practices
• Risk Management prowess
• Adaptive strategies and sustainable practices
• Adjusting to direct and impacts of COVID (think building material shortage, supply chain issues, etc.)
• Changing consumer dietary preferences
• Tapping into local and community knowledge (including Indigenous or traditional information)
• Geopolitical uncertainty affecting movement of harvests and prices, and
• Continuous learning.

These issues make it even more crucial to protect our crops and ensure the resilience of our agricultural sector.

So, what can you do as a crop grower to embed resilience more comprehensively in your operations?

Current State of Australian Agriculture

Australia’s vast cropping sector comprises more than 28 million commercial hectares each year, mostly along coastal regions says the Federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

Sustainable practices are already widespread among such farmers (broadacre): 85% retain stubble, 68% do minimum tillage and 65% use or rely on pesticides or fertiliser more wisely. In 2022-23, cropping farms earned record cash incomes, beating their peers running dairy or livestock. High commodity prices for wheat and high production levels in some parts of Australia helped boost the increased average income.

However, crop farmers can’t rest on their laurels, so to speak, as they face greater climate risk than livestock farms, says the agricultural department. This financial year, national planting of winter crops is historically high at 23.6 million hectares, leading to an expected 51.3 million tonne harvest. Find out more about the government’s national and state/territory forecasts here.

The cropping sector plays a key role in Australia’s and the globe’s breadbasket, supporting food security and economic resilience.

Importance of Crop Protection

Crop protection products are essential for maintaining crop yields and preventing damage from pests, weeds, and diseases. Without these products, our agricultural output would suffer significantly.

According to Deloitte Access Economics, $20.6 billion of Australia’s agricultural output (or 73% of its value) relies on these products. That means Aussie crop farmers and, indirectly, the nation, have a huge reliance on crop protection products.

Challenges and Vulnerabilities

However, this is also a vulnerability because this risk management strategy relies on chemicals mostly imported from China. That’s not unusual because China is a global supplier and control the market for several chemical precursors.

Such dependence sees Australian agriculture exposed to risks such as international trade distortions and supply-chain shocks. Recent geopolitical tensions have highlighted these issues, threatening the agricultural sector’s stability and sustainability.

Regulatory and Market Dynamics

Australia’s approach to crop-protection product tariffs differs from those of other major grain-producing countries land regions, such as the European Union, Brazil, and the US. These regions often have stronger protection supporting their local industries.

In Australia, the Anti-Dumping Commission has taken steps to protect our industries from unfair trade practices, but more could be done to create a level playing field. In short, we rely on imports due to the lack of tariffs and low barriers to entry.

To enhance resilience, Australian governments and the private sector could collaborate to invest in sovereign crop-protection manufacturing capabilities. Those capabilities are shrinking and now a “sovereign manufacturing risk”, argues Agricultural giant Bayer and ASX-listed company Nufarm.

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