The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2014 to be the International Year of Family Farming.
It is intended to stimulate policies that promote the sustainable development of agricultural systems that are based on farmer families, communal units, indigenous groups, cooperatives and fishing families.
With 99 per cent of Tasmanian farms run by families, the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association (TFGA) is planning to make the most of the occasion and to let people know how well they run those businesses.
“Across Australia, 120,000 farmers manage 59 per cent of Australia’s land. From that, they generate $38 billion in export income and they produce 93 per cent of our daily domestic food supply,” TFGA chief executive Jan Davis said today.
“It is the best and healthiest food that money can buy and we grow it, we produce it.
“In Tasmania we have 3600 farms contributing more than $1.5 billion a year directly to gross state product and $5 billion if you consider the economic multipliers that it generates.”
Ms Davis said the intergenerational nature of farming businesses here was the industry’s greatest strength.
“The strong history and culture of farming families breed pride, loyalty and a sense of confidence in the future,” she said.
“All members of the family have a stake in that future. Quite a few of our farms have been held in the same families for many generations. Not only that, many farms have two and even three generations of the same family working on the farm.”
Ms Davis said that modern Tasmanian family farms do not try to do it all by themselves.
“They engage expert advisors and often have corporate-type shareholding arrangements to ensure effective decision making and business planning. And many rely on outside funding and investment to achieve these outcomes.
“That is the way a successful family farm operates today.”
• Earlier today on Tasmanian Times: The International Year of Family Farming; Jan Davis’ Mercury column today
TFGA chief executive Jan Davis
