Jack Carmody at GroWQ Innovation Expo | Farm Weekly
He talks about the challenges facing the industry such as government intervention and climate policy.
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00:00Recently, a survey of producers showed that the number one challenge that we see in our
00:04industry and sustainability of our businesses is government intervention and climate policy.
00:10Now, for me, it's a massive concern because we know that we can't have any impact on the
00:15rainfall by counting cow farts and penalising producers for that. But what we can do is
00:21something real and act to those changes, which will protect our businesses.
00:27It might sound completely off track, but the question to ask yourself is, why do you farm?
00:33The differences between our regions, such as Willoona and Longreach, are striking. But
00:40we do have some common challenges that technology can help us overcome. Willoona spans an area
00:45that's four times larger than the area that is Longreach, but we've only got 10 parcel
00:51properties in that entire region. Longreach has got somewhere around 300, and a population
00:57that dwarfs Willoona. You've got closer to five times the amount of people that we've
01:03got, and you've got over 400% more pubs than we do.
01:09Despite all these differences, there's one thing that remains clear. The potential of
01:13technology to bridge the gap in remote living is just immense. We keep on hearing it today,
01:20talking about connectivity. But connectivity isn't just about our technology. Community
01:26and community learning, events like this. One of the things that I have to say is really
01:32good to see and amazing is the support that you guys have here as producers from your
01:38government. You've got your Department of Primary Industries that's actively funding
01:45but also have people employed to push technology to the next level. In Western Australia, it's
01:51a bit different. But what we have is we've got the drought hubs coming up and those community
01:57events being created. But at a grassroots level, I have to say that the women in our
02:01community who have got a little Facebook group called the Willoonas Ladies Group are the
02:06ones who organise field walks for stations. Effectively, it's a weekend where we all go
02:11to one of the other stations and we catch up.
02:15For more UN videos visit www.un.org