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Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation
Summary of full report
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Edited by Richard Meredith Editorial committtee Colin Campbell, John Cary, Mark Gardner & Roslyn Prinsley Assistant editors Ethnè Pfeiffer & Samantha Schelling Publication No. 03/030 Project No. RMA-1A |
Preface
This book offers a glimpse of the diversity of ways in which people
who make a living from a fragile land are balancing economic outcomes with
environmental stewardship in the 21st century. It is hoped the book
will offer inspiration and new perspectives to those working with the land
and those planning to do so. Further, for those who share a concern for
the future of Australia’s land and water resources, we hope this book helps
you understand the challenges better.
Australian farmers operate in a global marketplace that continues to change rapidly. They are subject to falling commodity prices, rising costs and an unpredictable climate. They are responding by making their own changes and experimenting with ideas that alter the way farming is done. These innovative activities are being undertaken by farmers from all corners of the continent in the hope of giving themselves more control over their own destiny. The many ways in which they are meeting these challenges make this is an exciting time for Australian farming.
When presented with challenges and opportunities, Australian farmers have always been resourceful, inventive and adaptive. Now they are inventing new organisational forms, new products, and new relationships with other participants in the supply chain. In order to do these things, they need new skills, capacities and perspectives.
It seems to be in a farmer’s nature to view the experiences of their peers as more credible than the exhortations of ‘experts’, so this book draws heavily on the experiences of Australian farmers and attempts to distil some lessons from those experiences.
For example, the market for food and natural fibre products, once assumed to be of limited growth potential, has become highly sophisticated as consumers value an increasingly wide array of attributes attached to the physical product and continually seek variety and novelty. This presents opportunities for serving rapidly changing niche markets with specialty products. The range of agricultural products now produced in Australia would be unrecognisable to anyone familiar with the Australian farm sector only 50 years ago.
At the same time, many farmers are now interacting in new ways with a range of other participants in the ‘value chain’ beyond the farm gate. This poses a range of challenges, opportunities and possible pitfalls. It also represents a significant cultural change for Australian farmers, and new skills and understanding are needed. Some farmers are taking this involvement right through to direct contact with the consumer.
Another important development concerns how Australian farmers, long portrayed as ‘rugged individualists’, are collaborating with each other in a range of innovative ways to respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by their economic, social and natural environments.
The way farm families organise their businesses and households is changing, too—not only in terms of the mix of goods and services that are being produced from land once solely devoted to commercial agriculture, but also in the variety of ways in which farm people are engaging in on-farm and off-farm activities.
This book is not a substitute for expert legal or financial advice, and before making any major decision based these options, especially a long-term one, the parties involved are urged to seek professional assistance.
On style
Each of the authors who has contributed to this book has done so as
part of a wider research project. They have adapted their research to produce
these chapters for a more general readership. In doing so, each author
has brought to their piece their own particular writing style. In editing
their work we have focused on clarity and accuracy. No attempt has been
made to ‘blend’ the writing styles of the various authors other than for
these purposes.
A note on names
Many of the discussions in this book were undertaken as part of research
studies in which anonymity was agreed with the participants. In some chapters,
therefore, names have been changed or omitted altogether to respect this
agreement.
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