Disaster impact mounts for Qld agriculture

QUEENSLAND has been hit with two of its biggest ever natural disasters in the last two months and the toll on the agricultural sector is huge.
Before the floods and cyclones Anthony and Yasi, the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation was predicting a farmgate value for Queensland primary industries at $11.18 billion for 2010-2011.
We are now likely looking at an outcome more than 10 percent lower, with the cost of these natural disasters to significantly exceed $1 billion for the farm sector.
But these are just statistics. Individual farmers have to bear the costs of not just lost opportunities, but the rebuilding of farm production systems. Many will have to rebuild residences as well.
For Cyclone Yasi last week, it was a near miss for large cities such as Townsville and Cairns, but it was a huge hit for smaller communities such as Tully and Cardwell, and a massive hit for crops such as bananas and sugarcane. Other horticultural industries, prawns and dairy farms have also been impacted.
It is also a sad reality that the path of this cyclone was similar to that of Cyclone Larry in 2006, meaning many farmers have been struck twice in five years.
Losses in the banana industry have been put at about $200 million and about $500m in the sugar industry.
Six months ago all around Queensland, 2010-2011 was promising to be the bumper season that farmers dreamed of – and for major commodities such as sugar and cotton it was coinciding with record commodity prices.
It is unfortunately ironic that for some farmers those high prices have become a curse as they attempt to nurse their crops through to a yield that will allow them to fill forward pricing contracts.
With many remaining cotton crops six weeks or more behind schedule, it will be an anxious wait until harvest as growers keep one eye on the skies and the other on international speculators whom are sending prices ballistic.
Ultimately, the challenges vary across the State.
Some flood-affected crops may recover to a decent outcome if the rest of the summer season obliges with reasonable weather.
But if whole farms have been washed out or destroyed by a cyclone, then the damage is disproportionate and also more personal.
Then there are the other hidden costs of these disasters that we can never measure.
For instance, there will be farmers this year who will defer new machinery purchases and other expansion plans simply because their focus is on rebuilding their farms and their equity position.
Those impacts flow through to local communities and to economic development.
Farmers will also hope that there is not a significant drop in the rural property market, the growth of which in recent years has underpinned a large amount of expansion and viability of the rural sector.
Another issue is how we can re-establish the fabric of rural communities so young people see farming and related industries as good future career choices.
These disasters have created a situation that would make young people somewhat nervous about committing themselves, and therefore it becomes vitally important that we do everything possible to ensure that the positive outlook of the current generation is transferred to the next generation.
We need to get farming communities back on their feet to encourage new entrants to careers in farming and agribusiness.
For other farming families, they may now have reduced options for succession planning resulting from a drop in income. They may have to extend succession plans by a few years until the businesses are in the same financial position where they might have been just a few months ago.
All up, the toll of these disasters is immense.
But I hope that after years of drought followed by this exceptional wet season our farmers have been through the worst of possible scenarios that could confront them.
As the Premier and many others have said: “you have to be tough to be a Queenslander”.
Rebuilding from these disasters gives us the strength to face any future challenges with confidence.