Page 8 - National Poultry Newspaper

Protect your reputation – and your business from Escherichia coli and Salmonella with the Poulvac modified live bacterial vaccines: Poulvac E coli and Poulvac ST. These vaccines from Zoetis offer a vaccination program
for your flock that helps fight the threat of two major bacterial diseases. Your business depends on safety and quality. It’s your brand. It’s your reputation. The Poulvac portfolio from Zoetis helps protect both.
To learn more about the Poulvac range
visit us at Zoetis.com.au or call 1800 814 883
ST and E coli
Zoetis Australia Pty Ltd. ABN 94 156 476 425. Level 6, 5 Rider Boulevard, Rhodes NSW 2138. © 2018 Zoetis Inc. All rights reserved. www.zoetis.com.au ZL0868
Land use and development farming viability in a changing landscape
BERNADETTE Mortensen was a 2015 Nuffield Scholar and she recently completed a study supported by Nuf- field Australia and Wool- worths that aimed to investigate agribusiness viability in a changing landscape in the context of land use and develop- ment.
Findings from her study are detailed following.
The key areas of investi- gation were the challenge of urban sensibilities on rural development and practice, and the effect of urban sprawl on existing land uses as well as the use of policy and legislation in shaping agribusiness growth.
The countries visited were developed countries with comfortable, largely urbanised populations, similar to an Australian demographic.
Key findings are the world faces a resource management challenge that will require a renewed approach to communica- tion, flexibility and under- standing in planning and farm diversification in or- der for farmers to remain financially viable and feed our growing global popu- lation.
This report makes plan- ning recommendations for Australia, based on re- search in other countries.
These recommendations centre around improving the outcomes of agribusi- ness expansion and inten- sification through more effective engagement with the media and the general public.
Government and agri- business co-operation is needed to compile data on existing developments and create a database of ap- proved technologies.
The aim being to give planners added confidence in approving intensive farming developments, when such developments compete with the needs of urban expansion.
Efforts to retain agri- cultural land in produc- tion through taxation and marketing intensive urban living as a desirable and environmentally friendly option would ease the pressure on land release and reverse sensitivity by maintaining critical mass of both agribusiness and housing.
What could Australia learn or adopt from other countries?
This study into the glob- al challenges and potential solutions for the intensi- fication and development of agribusiness has been broad and varied.
The topic is, in itself, complicated as it relies heavily on managing peo- ple’s fears and uncertain- ties; the feeling of confi- dence in a situation needs to be established for devel- opment to occur. Recommendations for farmers prior to devel- opment.
Figure 20 outlines some key areas to guide and fo- cus farmers looking to in- tensify, expand or develop their land.
Having situational awareness of ‘social li- cence’ and managing the fear response to change cannot be underestimated.
Time and money can be saved by engaging with community stake-
holders early.
In doing so, farmers have
an opportunity to allow for potential objectors’ fears and desires to be factored into development propos- als, before investment in the proposal documenta- tion is made.
The understanding gained may send a farmer onto a different path to diversification based on their specific ‘social li- cence’, for example, niche products like ice-creams or agri-tourism.
The understanding gained may allow for farmers to build social licence through the en- gagement of local ‘thought leaders’.
Thought leaders are re- spected members of the community who are able to influence the greater community.
By engaging these types of people, the desires or fears of potential com- plainants can be mitigated or built into the develop- ment plan.
It is true, however, that a farmer may have the rights under planning law, engage with stakeholders, explore diversification and still not gain social licence.
There are times when the only solution is to ensure the development proposal is still viable with the add- ed cost of defending the proposal.
The defence of the pro- posal can easily equal or exceed the original devel- opment documentation cost.
During the course of the study, a variety of differ- ent legislation, policy and schemes were investigated to discover ways in which agribusiness could remain viable in a changing land- scape.
In analysing these, there are a range of goals against which they have measured.
Figure 21 summarises the desired outcomes of the re- search in terms of retaining agricultural land in produc- tion and limiting changes to the rural demographic.
The green sections in- dicate the achievement of the study goal.
As shown, no one policy achieves all the goals.
Australia is in a position to learn from international legislative experience in determining and establish- ing its own.
The best policy for the Australian context will be a combination of the key legislative features from around the world.
Of interest, it was noted that although rules can be established permitting or
restricting people’s use of land through legislation and policy, these same rules can be challenged by objectors and are subject to the changes of govern- ment priorities.
Options such as ‘Right to Farm’ legislation, ‘Zoning’ and the ‘Canadian Green Belt’ did not overcome the challenge of the changing demographic, which is a bigger contributor to failed development attempts than lack of legislation.
It is the author’s opin- ion that coupling support- ive designated areas and ‘Right to Farm’ legislation with taxation incentives, such as the ‘Land Mobil- ity Scheme’ investigated in Ireland, would reduce the pressure on development applications by managing the changes to the rural demographic.
Australian farmers have come under criticism for selling land to specula- tive and lifestyle buyers to secure retirement funds – the implementation of a program that encouraged the leasing of land to other farmers has many benefits.
The first benefit is to new entrant farmers or exist- ing farmers not burdened with the capital expense of buying land, allowing for capital to be spent on developments.
Second, it would allevi- ate the pressure of farmers having to sell their land to the highest bidder by giv- ing farmers an option of a tax-free income stream into retirement.
Lastly, an incentive of this nature would ensure a continued critical mass of farming activities, which has positive impacts not only on the sympathetic rural demographic but al- so on the economic front where services provided to agribusiness can be main- tained.
Figure 22 summarises specific areas, which if ad- dressed in Australia would ease the challenges on ag- ribusiness development.
These have the poten- tial to retain agricultural land in production, build confidence in agribusiness ‘social licence’ and re- duce the pressure of urban sprawl. Recommendations for retaining critical mass of quality farmland and building broader social licence
Prioritising natural re- sources is recognised as an essential aspect of contin- ued prosperity for human- ity and the environment.
Collaboration between industry, research and government to implement an improved method of natural accounting such as Flanders Versatile, is needed.
The Flanders Versatile model encompasses more aspects of a system’s sus- tainability, giving a broad- er view of what makes an area suitable for agricul- ture or housing.
Redefining society’s out- look on living and housing requirements would aid in
☛ continued P10
Page 8 – National Poultry Newspaper, September 2018
www.poultrynews.com.au
Figure 20: Recommended steps for farmers consider- ing designated development.
Figure 22: Recommendations for retaining agricultural land for agricultural production.
Figure 21: Study goal outcomes for agricultural land retention and development schemes investigated.