Skilled migrants can play a supporting role in agribusiness, particularly in specialised areas such as agronomy, farm management, machinery maintenance and agricultural-technology implementation.
However, given that a large portion of farm work is seasonal, unskilled or semi-skilled, a sustainable workforce is our primary concern rather than where it is sourced from.
From a cultural or social perspective, skilled migrants engaged in agriculture or agribusiness often bring valuable international experience or expertise, which can benefit technology transfer, productivity and knowledge sharing. Passing on their culture and values can only be of benefit to communities in regional Australia.
The NFF’s full submission can be found here.
Chrissy Kerin
Stacey Davidson