THE family farm is worth saving.
Mooted by many industry analysts as dying, as major corporate players continue an exponential growth into agriculture, one WA farmer group is focused on driving more profitability into rural communities with a "grass roots up" approach, spearheaded by family farms.
It has often been written and vocalised, that economies of scale is the only way to survive in agriculture, echoing the strident call of the 1980s by economist Henry Schapper to "get big or get out".
While not disagreeing, Stirlings to Coast Farmers (SCF) chief executive officer Christine Kershaw says there is another way to make family farms more profitable.
"There is no doubt that family farms are under pressure, but there are solutions," she said, speaking with Farm Weekly after the group's annual trials review last week.
While the focus is on supporting group members in the southern Albany Port Zone, there is a bigger vision which has the potential to embrace farm communities throughout the Wheatbelt.
Dr Kershaw said the group launched a strategic plan last year embracing 2016 to 2019, which set out goals and strategies, designed to deliver research, development and extension projects and services that achieved triple bottom line results at the farm business, community and organisational levels.
Significantly, the group is also aiming to build supportive networks and partnerships.
According to Dr Kershaw, industry collaboration and more efficient use of technology are the keys to future industry success.
"We're already out and about meeting with local government, other growers groups and potential industry partners, explaining our goals," she said.
"Our focus is on the value chain and getting a bigger piece of the pie for farmers.
"Basically, it's about looking at ways to spread risk and for our group, it's about assessing high value options such as finding ways to add value to low value grain that we are practically giving away.
"We need to ask ourselves, what else we can do with our basic commodities to capture higher value niche opportunities, such as establishing feedlots on milled rations or milling noodle wheats for a variety of food products.
"Putting basic commodities onto a ship so that someone else can add value should be a last resort.
"These are a few examples of the types of projects we are looking at.
"But it is predicated on an information-flow among our members and collaboration with other industry players and grower groups, which engenders trust and confidence for farmers to take risks."
One of the group's strategies is to diversify income streams and identify new funding sources.
"Soon we will be announcing a major collaborative project that will provide more clarity and structure of our vision and we hope we can become a catalyst for transformation of family farming in our region," Dr Kershaw said.
Aligned with that - perhaps an unintended but welcome consequence - is highlighting the value of agriculture to regional communities.
In the Albany Port Zone, for example, SCF members alone - representing 80 farm businesses - collectively contribute about $420 million to the local regional economy.
Income from tourism pales into insignificance compared to an annual $1m spent on local supplies by individual farming enterprises.
The skew of attention to tourism and subsequent political fanfare is galling to a starved-for-attention agriculture industry.
But more publicity given to ag's worth, could start a paradigm shift of new discovery for city-centric populations that Australia, in fact, rides on the back of family farms.
This year, agribusiness supplanted mining as the biggest contributor to the nation's gross domestic product.