This week QFF and our peak body members Canegrowers, Queensland Fruit & Vegetable Growers, and Cotton Australia provided a submission to contribute to the development of the Queensland Primary Industries Prosper 2050 Blueprint.
The Crisafulli Government has committed to a goal of growing primary production to $30 billion by 2030, with the Blueprint being developed as guide as to how this goal can be achieved and as a long-term strategic framework to secure a profitable, resilient and sustainable future for Queensland agriculture.
QFF and our members support the intent of the Blueprint and the importance of having a well thought through, grounded and well-resourced plan for the future of Queensland agriculture.
The Blueprint is currently in a draft format that has been out for public consultation since late April, with numerous regional information sessions, webinars and field days drop-in sessions seeking input from agribusinesses, community organisations and the broader agriculture sector.
QFF have strongly advocated for the prioritisation of critical inputs including water and energy throughout the Blueprint to truly unlock the potential of Queensland agriculture. Energy reform is long overdue, with current tariff structures and energy pricing impacting agricultural productivity and profitability.
It is also imperative that the Queensland Government prioritises the unlocking of unused allocations in existing water plans to help support the long-term growth of Queensland agriculture.
It has been positive to see the early work the Queensland Government has undertaken to unlock new water, as well as their recent direction for Sunwater to start work on the Paradise Dam rebuild, and industry would now like to see the ongoing prioritisation of water policy planning captured in the Blueprint.
Other critical industry-identified priorities such as infrastructure, biosecurity, workforce capacity, digital connectivity, land-use planning, climate adaptation and disaster resilience must also underpin the final Blueprint given their importance in enabling growth across the sector.
These priorities will also be needed to inform the ways in which success is measured to ensure the Blueprint remains grounded in the realities of on-farm issues including income and profitability, input efficiency gains, and workforce development.
To ensure these priorities are measured successfully across the lifespan of the Blueprint, QFF recommends the development of complementary one- and three-year action plans, as well as a five-year plan. These plans should be aligned with local priorities and co-designed with regional stakeholders and industry.
For the Blueprint to truly succeed in elevating the entire Queensland agriculture sector it is essential that it represents the sector’s diversity of industries and regions. This includes the need for the Blueprint to account for commodity specific resource requirements and enabling infrastructure, as well as regional contexts including climate, infrastructure, workforce and community needs.
It is also important that the Blueprint leverages existing work that has been developed by industry to avoid duplication of work, as well as the potential loss of key strategic insights from strategic industry roadmaps such as the Intensive Animal Industries Roadmap 2025-2035, Future Fields, Sugar Plus, Cotton Australia Strategic Plan 2023-2028, the Queensland Dairy Plan, and others.
We will continue to work with the Queensland Government, making sure that industry has the opportunity to be involved in setting the strategic direction of our state’s agricultural sector.