A Victorian academic is seeking the opinions of Australia’s wheatbelt farmers, on how production could be boosted, while protecting and saving native flora and fauna.
Deakin University doctoral student Dennis Williamson said he was seeking the opinions of wheatbelt broadacre farmers and how they compared with ecologists and Natural Resource Management (NRM) professionals.
“Are there certain commercial production and rural lifestyle benefits to be gained by agriculture, through various forms of nature conservation?,” Mr Williamson said.
“What works, what doesn't work? If some things can work in our wheatbelt regions, couldn't they be applied in rural agricultural areas throughout Australia?”
He said agricultural lands occupied about 60 per cent of the Australian land mass and the wheatbelt (or the ABARES Wheat-Sheep Zone) made up a high proportion of that area.
Mr Williamson said he was raising important, but sometimes difficult to discuss, issues, through a survey on the Facebook page for the Australian Wheatbelt Agriculture and Ecology Group.
“Australia's wheatbelt farmers may be able lead the way - not only their production of food and fibre, but also in their creativeness for saving our flora and fauna.”
He said the survey was not intended to reduce the amount of agricultural land, rather see how it could be used to benefit both production and the environment.
“How can we better utilise some of the environmental and ecological resources, to give those species a better chance of surviving climate change and how can we do so, in a way that actually benefits farmers, along the way ?”
With the world population growing at a rapid rate, placing ever increasing demands on Australia’s farmers to produce more food and fibre, there was also a further challenge from changes in Australia’s climactic and weather patterns.
Ecologists had estimated rapid changes in climatic conditions would place half of Australia’s flora and fauna species at risk of significant population depletion, or even extinction.
“If we wait around for ecologists to do all their research on management solutions, changes will probably overtake us, well before they implement plans to save particular species,” Mr Williamson said.
“I want to find out whether farmers and Natural Resource Managers (NRM’s) have noticed particular changes that have occurred – what is their perception of things that have changed, whether they have noticed higher temperatures, less rainfall overall, or less water flowing in streams ?”
Part of the research also involved finding out which agricultural practices had been applied, to respond to changes in weather patterns and climate, “and also asking whether they have noticed any changes in flora or fauna.
“Have any particular species diminished and what are the reasons that is happening ?”
He said national parks alone could not be relied upon to provide adequate refuge habitat for flora and fauna, in the face of climate pressure.
Mr Williamson said while some farmers might see private reserves as taking away productive land, he was also keen to see what benefits might flow from using bushland, whether that be better pollination of crops or attracting insect and pest eating birds.
He said farmers and NRM managers, or field officers, were welcome to join the group, to tell him their opinions.
“Who knows, we might even be able to improve government policies on this topic or channel funding in the right directions ?” he said.
The survey can be found at www.facebook.com/auswheatbelt.agriculturecology
