ISSUES surrounding connectivity, multi-peril crop insurance and the unfolding dry season were high on the agenda as National Farmers Federation (NFF) president Fiona Simson toured the WA Wheatbelt last week.
Ms Simson was in WA for her first tour of the agricultural region since being elected NFF president last November, travelling to Kalannie and Kulin with WAFarmers president Tony York.
The president of Australia's peak national agricultural lobby group said the purpose of the two-day trip was to uncover the main issues affecting WA farmers.
"I think for me coming over here is always a matter of listening as much as I talk, I'm not Western Australian and I haven't been here very often myself, so it's important that I understand the agricultural scene and the political scene in WA and hear from people themselves what is actually impacting them," Ms Simson said.
"I think the other part of that is to have an opportunity to talk to them about what NFF do, what advocacy groups do and to try and make sure that we are actively seeking people to have input into those groups.
"Obviously WAFarmers has input into our committees and our policy structures, it's really important that we continue to be out there flying the flag and talking about what role we play when agriculture at the moment is so important."
Ms Simson spent the first day of her WA tour travelling to Kalannie, where she met with local farmers heavily affected by this year's dry conditions.
She said growers in the region remained positive, despite facing difficult business decisions.
"It was good to talk to many of those farmers who were affected by seasonal conditions in that area and certainly they are at a pointy end now where they will have to decide about whether or not to spray out their crops, to feed off their crops, to keep their crops," Ms Simson said.
"It was good that some of this later rain has changed things somewhat, and provided some sort of help but I think generally in that area the rain has been too late."
The dry season was also on the agenda last Tuesday morning when the NFF president met with WA Agriculture and Food Minister Alannah MacTiernan.
Ms Simson said the NFF and the State government would work together to ensure WA growers were provided with sufficient assistance.
"We talked about the fact that there are no areas as I understand declared (as drought) at this moment and we talked certainly the streamlining of any support that might be given through her government at this stage and how that might transition into the Rural Investment Corporation when it comes up."
Ms Simpson said the NFF would work hard to lobby for WA on several other priority issues raised by Ms MacTiernan, including grower levy allocations and wild dog control.
"Certainly Alannah (MacTiernan) gave us a good discussion, she was very interested in making sure that some of the levy dollars that are spent by WA grain producers are returned and spent here in this State.
"I've indicated that I'm very willing to do whatever I can to talk about that with any of my contacts back east and to try and see that it happens.
"She (Ms MacTiernan) was very interested in some of the exclusion fencing work in Queensland, why that has been so successful in understanding potentially about what we could do here in WA about wild dogs and what sort of responsibilities that had."
Following her meeting with Ms MacTiernan, Ms Simson joined Mr York, Labor Party Agricultural Region MLC, Darren West, The Nationals WA Roe MLA, Peter Rundle and several WAFarmers zone leaders at a public meeting in Kulin.
Multi-peril crop insurance dominated discussions in an area that was largely affected by frost in 2016, with several farmers questioning whether an affordable multi-peril insurance option was in the pipeline.
Ms Simson highlighted the importance of growers reducing the risks of farming by proactively exploring innovative solutions.
"Multi-peril has been around for a while and I think it's one of the tools in the toolbox that farmers can have where they can take some control of their production," Ms Simson said.
"Every time there's a national disaster if we keep going we need assistance for this and assistance for that, the trouble is government actually just doesn't have efficient funding to actually deliver, and we can actually bank on some of those risks ourselves.
"How is an efficient way of delivering that, what is the best way of actually being able to deliver that and at the moment we can look at innovative ways of funding that?"
Mr York said he was hopeful WAFarmers would assist in making insurance options more affordable through State government lobbying.
"We've been working very hard at a State government level and tried to get stamp duty exemptions off multi-peril," Mr York said.
"This year's dry season has really highlighted the risk that we are exposed to and this could be part of a solution for some growers so I'm hopeful that there's some potential.
"There's lots of other sectors in the economy that won't turn the first leaf until they've got this sort of package - income protection or interruption insurance - in place so why shouldn't agriculture?"
Improving poor telecommunication standards in regional Australia was another issue on the agenda, which Ms Simson said was a high priority for the NFF.
The NFF has been campaigning for improved connectivity outside of Australia's metropolitan areas over the past year through its "data drought" campaign.
Mr West said the State government was aware of problems with telecommunications and was working to improve the conditions as quickly and effectively as possible.
"The biggest single issue that comes through my office is telecommunications, and 108 towers hasn't really diminished the flow of inquiries and complaints coming through my office about the NBN," Mr West said.
"We are working with some companies going back to old microwave technology in the Mid West which is working particularly well."
Transport, farm management deposits, local government and biosecurity issues were also raised with panel members throughout the meeting.
