Robbie Sefton AM, Managing Director
As a leader in delivering strategic solutions for agribusiness and regional, rural and remote Australia, Seftons is always keen to ensure our clients have the most up-to-date information to hand around the sentiment of farmers and rural and regional stakeholders.
We are pleased to be partnering with the National Farmers’ Federation on a national survey covering all agriculture commodity sectors and geographical regions, across a broad range of issues to gauge sentiment on the ground and identify priorities and challenges across the industry.
The National Farmer Priorities Survey includes the input of more than 1600 farmers, a first-of-its-kind initiative at a time when the agricultural landscape is evolving at a rapid rate, and Australian farmers look for increasingly efficient and sustainable measures to boost productivity and meet the growing expectations of customers here, and around the globe.
Overall, the final report highlights how passionate Australian farmers are about what they do, and their communities, but they do have reservations about the outlook for the sector. Federal climate change policies and environmental laws, biosecurity, market power of processors/supermarkets, roads and transport infrastructure, and overseas trading relationships were at the heart of these reservations, each of them raised as a concern by about 8-in-10 survey respondents.
Here is a snapshot from the survey:
- 1,600 farmers from across Australia have had their say in the first National Farmer Priorities Survey.
- Industry sentiment is deteriorating with 1 in 3 farmers less positive about the future of farming than they were 12 months ago.
- Farmers are worried about a wide range of policy pressures, with market fairness, environment laws and infrastructure funding topping the list.
- A majority of farmers think the Federal Government’s policies are harming the industry.
You can view the full National Farmer Priorities Survey report by accessing the attachment or clicking here.
We are delighted to share the report with you and look forward to working with you to identify opportunities for getting the most out of the findings, and how this can help to improve engagement with farmers and the communities they call home.