Fertilizer support announcement and related matters

Question

1. How much has the federal government committed to purchasing or underwriting or otherwise helping to secure fertilizer for Australian farmers since the start of the Iran confl ict? 2. Does the government have data on which food crops or sectors, proportionally, the fertilizer announcement will support; did it put in place any requirements around which farmers or sectors that fertilizer should be provided to? 3. Do we know how much is going to support small-scale farmers that are likely to be more severely affected by supply shortfalls and price-spikes over larger, corporate farms, for example? 4. The fuel and fertiliser measures were framed as supporting food security outcomes, often making reference to Australia's food security strategy. a. Noting that the 'Feeding Australia' food security strategy discussion paper acknowledges that food and nutrition security in Australia is declining despite growing production volumes, how much of the fertilizer that the government has helped secure is for food crops that contribute to domestic food security? 5. A recent CSIRO report found that Australia does not produce enough vegetables for all Australians to eat the recommended amount of vegetables for a healthy diet, and noting that many vegetable producers say they are considering exiting the industry, how much of the fertilizer we've helped to secure or underwrite is going to vegetable production? a. If that was not considered, should ensuring Australians have access to affordable fresh foods that are most important to their food security be considered in how this secured fertiliser is distributed? b. What is the department doing about that vegetable production shortfall more generally? 6. We heard a lot from the Minister and the department about how important it was to hit the $100 billion revenue target for agricultural production. Is domestic food security, including nutritional security, a goal of Australian agricultural policy? a. Is it a goal that Australians have enough healthy food to eat? b. If so, how is that reflected in the financial or technical support the government provides to the agricultural sector generally and in crises like the one we're in now? 7. How much of the fertilizer is going to support the production of commodities that will be exported? a. How much of that is for canola that will be exported to produce biofuels? 8. There have been a number of media stories recently about farmers who have, through managing to enhance natural capital on their farms, reduced their total use of synthetic fertilizers while maintaining or even improving yields. a. Not discounting the necessity of securing fertilizer now to help farmers get crops in the ground over the coming planting seasons, how much is the government investing in programs or support for farmers to implement practice change or technologies that would reduce their reliance on synthetic fertilizer? 9. In the long term, from a public interest point of view, and from a producer point of view, wouldn't it be a more prudent strategy to fund programs that lead to a reduction in how much synthetic fertilizer farmers use in the first place? a. I understand Australian farmers are relatively efficient fertilizer users in global terms already, but it seems clear that some have found ways to dramatically reduce their dependence compared with other Australian farmers - shouldn't we invest more in helping more farmers follow their lead? b. What are the impacts of inefficient or injudicious use of fertilizer on farm productivity? c. I understand that across the Australian wheat belt soil constraints, some of which are affected by inefficient fertilizer use, cause almost $2bn a year in lost productivity for wheat producers, is that fair? What about for other sectors? d. What are the environmental costs of inefficient or excessive or otherwise sub-optimal fertilizer-use in Australia? e. The CSIRO has pointed out that Australia's food system has some of the largest negative environmental costs, measured in dollar terms, of any country, primarily from land degradation. f. Does inefficient fertilizer use contribute to that land degradation? g. What measures if any have been put in place to ensure that the fertilizer secured recently by the federal government won't contribute to further degradation or other negative environmental impacts?

Answer

Please see PDF attachment.

Documents

• Question with answer (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• SQ26-000575.pdf (opens in a new tab)