Immigration needs to open doors to more than 96,000 farm workers in Australia

Immigration needs to open doors to more than 96,000 farm workers in Australia

The National Farmers' Federation (NFF) is calling on the Rudd Government to ease immigration laws to allow Pacific islanders to come to Australia on a seasonal basis and pick fruit and vegetables.

It also wants the maintenance of financial incentives for Australians to take on agriculture and horticulture apprentices.

Australia’s rural areas are in dire need for more farm workers, and it all started after farm owners let thousands of employees go during the drought period.

But now these very same farm owners are struggling to find enough people to help them capitalise on better times.

The NFF warns that this worker shortage is already hitting farm production, negatively impacting regional economies and cutting Australia's economic growth.

According to the NFF’s calculations, the rural sector has a shortfall of 96,000 people in the top seven types of agricultural jobs. This includes heavy farm equipment operators, farm hands, shearers and livestock farmers.

Even though Victoria has continued to experience below-average rainfall in most districts, its farmers are still reporting shortages of horticulturalists, fruit pickers, dairy workers and shearers.

If this immigration does not open its doors to farm workers soon, some experts fear this labour force shortage could add to food price inflation, if it means crops cannot be planted, harvested or picked in time.

The NFF report, which highlights the reasons behind the shortage of farm workers, will soon be presented to the Federal Government's Agricultural Production Working Group, which was established last year to examine labour shortages.

The NFF's general manager of workplace relations, Denita Wawn, said these shortages had already forced some farmers off the land, lowered farm production and, consequently, hurt economic growth.