Land used for coal mining in the Hunter should be recycled and reused for food production in future, a leading agriculturalist says.
The region had “tremendous long-term potential” in the food business, Dr Cameron Archer, a former Tocal Agricultural College principal, said.
Farmers had previously raised concerns that coal companies were acquiring large land parcels to offset the environmental effects of mine expansion.
It was asserted that this trend could threaten the region’s agriculture, land values and jobs.
Further concerns had been raised that the Lower Hunter food bowl was under threat, with almost 20 per cent of the region’s prime farming land set to be lost.
Nevertheless, Regional Development Australia, Hunter has listed food and agribusiness as one of the region’s seven areas of competitive advantage.
The organisation aimed to pinpoint innovation opportunities to create the region’s future jobs.
Dr Archer said a big “innovation challenge” for the Hunter was “how to recycle mining land”.
People may consider old mining land as a “wasteland”, but it had “major potential in future for various agricultural production purposes”, he said.
“We should try and recycle that land in a more proactive way – it doesn’t tend to happen as much as it could,” he said.
Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon said the most successful farms in future would be “those with scale”.
“It’s not always a popular thing to say, but we need further consolidation and corporatisation,” Mr Fitzgibbon, the Opposition agriculture spokesman, said.
“Larger landholdings, deep corporate pockets and the capacity to invest in innovation and expensive technologies will be required to be internationally competitive.”
Mr Fitzgibbon said Australia’s competitive advantage was “our clean, green, safe image”.
But he said opportunities existed to charge premium prices for niche, value-added products.
One example was Wagyu beef, which could be genetically modified to have “relatively healthy” marbled meat.
“Our opportunity to value-add is enormous,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.
“We don’t do enough of it in Australia.”
Dr Archer said the beef and dairy industries had potential to be economic drivers in the region.
“I don’t think we should underestimate the potential of the dairy industry,” he said.
“Dairy is fundamentally very strong because it’s undergone a lot of changes with farm sizes and mechanisation.”
He added that the Hunter had “some excellent beef producers”.
An advantage for the region was its close proximity to major trading markets, transport hubs such as the Port of Newcastle, labour supply and “where people want to live”.
View the Newcastle Herald story http://www.theherald.com.au/story/3541634/old-mine-sites-could-produce-a-rich-harvest/?cs=12
Attend our event https://rdahunter.org.au/news-events/save-the-date-the-hunter-s-priorities-have-your-say