GOVERNMENT planners need to rethink the value of farms, and look beyond the mere dollar value of land available when assessing their worth according to Hawkesbury Councillor Paul Rasmussen.
The Hawkesbury and other farming areas on the outskirts of Sydney are under threat from urban sprawl posing risks to the food supply of Sydney according to University of Technology Sydney researcher Laura Wynne.
Concreting over farming land to build houses could critically affect Sydney’s future food supply according to research by Ms Wynne and her team at the Institute for Sustainable Futures.
Cr Rasmussen has long been of the opinion that not enough is done to protect the rights of farmers in the Hawkesbury.
He speaks about it often at Hawkesbury Council meetings, and told the Gazette years of failed policy had hurt the area’s capacity to grow food.
“For as long as I have been on Council...there has been a prevailing view in Council and councillors that agriculture in the Hawkesbury was on the way out, dying or already dead,” he said.
Hawkesbury Mayor Mary Lyons-Buckett said she agreed Council had not always got it right in the past, but said that Council was about to start a study on agricultural lands.
“I think that without any identification or protection in place for rural lands in the past there has been loss of some land which we would have been much better off keeping for agricultural purposes,” she said.
“However, Council is in the process of engaging consultants to undertake an Agricultural Lands Study which will allow planning for the future to ensure adequate provision is made for retention of rural and farming land.”
Hawkesbury Council is currently re-writing its Residential Land Strategy, a key planning instrument to identify where housing can go in the electorate.
The Mayor said it was hoped the new instrument would be a panacea for some of the land use conflicts that crop up from time to time.
“It is my hope that farmers will be able to continue farming and producing goods as they have done for many years,” she said.
“Certainty in land use planning will hopefully reduce the issues arising around land use conflict and enhance the agricultural precinct.”
Cr Rasmussen he wanted to see farming continue in the Hawkesbury for a long time into the future.
“There is a huge future for farming in the Hawkesbury being so close to the biggest capital City in Australia,” he said.
“We have all the best possible conditions for farming and supplying high quality food and fibre for the large and rapidly growing population of Sydney.
“Farming has big future we just need to get the enabling framework polished up and activated for full on farming. It will boom here if we can manage the transformation.”
