Farmland supports everything

YOU don’t have to drive far in Tasmania to understand the importance of water to development of our state’s agriculture. 

Irrigation development, initially through private initiative and investment and then through the state-owned company Tas Irrigation has lifted productivity and confidence in Tasmanian farming to levels considered only possible in mainland states. 

It is no wonder that the Tasmanian Government feels sufficiently certain in our farming sector to set the lofty goal of $10billion of annual productivity by 2050. Productivity is the keyword here. 

That $10 billion aim is to be achieved while the two key elements to agriculture remain effectively static – that is available land and the supply of water. 

Agriculture in Tasmania is constantly evolving. In the 1950s, Tasmania was all about wool, apples and potatoes. In the 1980s poppies, grapes and trees were the next big step. 

In the 2000s we saw the revolution into high-value add cropping including high-yield processing potatoes and peas. 

The key that unlocked all that productivity and diversity was water – and remains so. 

The land is increasingly under pressure, either through the inevitable encroachment of residential demand upon agriculture or the abstraction of land use through irrigation pipelines, energy transmission lines or the construction of renewable energy resources such as wind towers and solar panel installations. 

While many Tasmanians would agree with the further development of renewable energy in the state, there are hidden costs where farmers are no longer able to manage and farm their land for the most productive of outcomes. 

While land under transmission lines is still arable and productive, usage can be limited by not being able to install pivot irrigation, which in turn precludes the most productive use of that land. 

Similarly, land, where irrigation pipelines are buried, cannot be used for many different agricultural purposes, including agroforestry – not just for wood fibre, but also for deeprooted trees such as walnuts, fruits including stone fruits as well as olives and other high financial yield crops. 

While these crops may not be in the current rotation on many farms, future markets and trends might mean they become attractive indeed. Similarly with water. 

As the trend continues to inconsistent rainfall and limited scope for further irrigation scheme development, water resources become finite – farmers will have to make do with what is already available. 

The take from environmental flows from rivers and streams will be increasingly scrutinised and managed – future forecasts will have as much an impact on the actual allowable take as what the water meter on the creek says. 

While we must of course develop our power and irrigation infrastructure to further expand our overall economy, this must be done with the protection and development of agriculture as a first principle. 

Agriculture sits as the backbone of all our regional communities – we lean on farmers to provide jobs for families in rural areas and we champion them as leaders for brand Tasmania, but governments can’t expect farmers to keep on delivering when they also restrict what they might do on their land.