CHAF RURAL FINANCE INNOVATIONS IN AGRIBUSINESS AWARD 2012

THE AWARD:

Rural Finance Victoria is offering a $1,000 award for the farmer, forester, processor or marketer within the CHAF region who is able to demonstrate how their business can add value to the agribusiness sector by applying new or innovative practices.

AWARD CRITERIA:

The Award will be given to the individual, team or agribusiness in the Central Highlands Region that is able to best demonstrate that their business:

• Shows high potential for profit by adopting new production processes or systems
• Demonstrates innovation in production or marketing
• Creates a vision for the future
• Demonstrates sustained growth
• Shows a monitoring process to demonstrate the business is innovative and successful.
• Demonstrates a strategic approach to environmental management and succession planning

The nomination forms containing further information can be downloaded from this link CHAF Rural Finance Innovations in Agribusness Award 2012 nomination form

 Nominations and applications close on Friday 26^th of October, 2012.

Please respond by  email to: CHAF Rural Finance Innvations in Agribusiness Award to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by post to CHAF Rural Finance Innovations in Agribusiness Award, 619 Humffray Street South, Ballarat, 3350.

Notice of Annual General Meeting 2012

I am pleased to announce the 2012 Central Highlands Agribusiness Forum Incorporated (CHAF) Annual General Meeting.

When:     4.30pm 6.00pm – Friday November 16 2012

Where:   Sails on the Lake. Ballarat Yacht Club, Wendouree Parade, Ballarat. 3350

The AGM will be followed by the 2012 CHAF Dinner (click these words to download the invitation) which will include a presentation on Victoria's groundwater resources and our key note speaker, Federal Senator the honorable John Madigan, Deputy Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Australia's Food Processing Sector and initiator of the Australian Manufacturing and Farming Program.

I hope that many of you are able to attend this event to hear about the CHAF’s many achievements in the past year and plans for the coming year.

We are now formally calling for nominations for the CHAF Board of Management. Nominations for the Board of Management close at 12 noon on Monday November 5, 2012.  Election notice, nomination documents and cover letter can be found at this link: CHAF Notice of 2012 AGM and BoM nomination doc

GARDINER TERTIARY SCHOLARSHIPS 2013

Two scholarships of $5,000 per year for the duration of a scholar’s
University or TAFE course

Scholarships play a vital role in supporting rural students who otherwise may not be able to pursue tertiary studies. The Gardiner Foundation is proud to offer tertiary scholarships in 2013 to two first year University or TAFE students from Victorian dairy communities.

Rural students often face much greater barriers to participation in higher education than their metropolitan counterparts. Many must move to a new city, which can cause significant financial anxiety for students and their families, as the cost of living independently is added to that of purchasing the required materials, equipment and books. Added to the financial anxieties are the challenges associated with adjusting to a demanding self-directed study regime, navigating around a new city, and developing new social and support networks.

The Gardiner Foundation’s Tertiary Scholarships 2013 will support rural students who have strong potential to make an impact for the dairy industry and its communities. Successful scholars will receive $5,000 per year of study in their approved course, subject to the Gardiner Foundation’s terms and conditions.

Successful applicants will be:

• Australian citizens residing in rural Victorian dairy communities
• Commencing their first year of full-time tertiary study in 2013 (University or TAFE)
• Required to move away from home to take up their chosen course
• Through their chosen course, pursuing a career that will either:

o    directly benefit the dairy industry; and/or

o    benefit small dairy communities, and is currently included on the Australian and/or Victorian skill shortage list and rated as R, D or S

• Not receiving any other scholarship

Please visit www.gardinerfoundation.com.au/programs/scholarship.htm to read the guidelines and access the online application form.

Applications close at 5pm on Friday 7^th September, 2012.

For more information about these scholarships, please contact: Patricia Burke, Program Administrator, Community and People Development, (03) 9606 1900. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 Regional food hubs – businesses or organisations that connect farmers and buyers by offering a suite of production, distribution, and marketing services – can play a critical role in developing stronger supply chains for local food.  They can also help address the infrastructure challenges that many small and midsize producers face when trying to break into local markets, and help aggregate products from smaller local and regional producers.  Food hubs can also support food access, regional economic development and job creation.

Some links to further information include:

Introducing the Regional Food Hub Guide: An Innovative Tool for Growing Local Food Systems

Regional Food Hubs: Linking Producers to New Markets (a pdf download)

Food Hub: Connecting Regional Producers & Consumers

The following project description identifies the fit of Regional Food Hubs into CHAFs' strategic plan for identity, diversity and resilience in Central Highlands Agribusiness.

I look forward to seeing you at one of our sessions. Please make sure to RSVP, quoting which seminar you hope to attend, to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Understanding policy and opportunity that are allowable under our free trade agreements informs Australia on the farming systems we operate and are critical to the value chain after the farm gate. I've been wondering what options we have under our trade agreements and have been looking for some sort of document that provides signposts for areas where CHAF can advocate policy development in an attempt to 'level' the playing field. First though, we need to smell the wind coming from the Northern hemisphere.

I found a valid source of information (not always an easy thing to do) at the following link: Inside Story: Current affairs and culture from Australia and beyond (it will open in a new window)

Written by John Quiggin, Australian Research Council Federation Fellow in Economics and Political Science at the University of Queensland. The article is an edited version of his contribution to Jane Kelsey’s book, No Ordinary Deal: Unmasking the Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement, published in November 2010 in Australia by Allen & Unwin.

Here is an excerpt from the article that gives a sense of the way the AUSFTA agreement is seen by the author:

"The AUSFTA came into force on 1 January 2005.

What it did

The agreement removed most tariffs and barriers to Australian imports of US goods, but made no change in US restrictions on imports of sugar from Australia and only modest and gradual changes with respect to imports of beef and dairy products. More importantly, no changes were made to the US Farm Bill, under which US agricultural producers benefit from a complex set of subsidies and the resulting enhanced supply is dumped on world markets. Not only was the general system of subsidies unaffected (it would perhaps have been utopian to hope for broad-based reform), but it appears there was not even any commitment to avoid the use of export subsidies that directly harm Australian exporters in particular markets. Indeed, it appears that the issue of the Farm Bill was not even raised in the negotiations. The most important distortions of agricultural trade practised by the United States were unaffected by the AUSFTA and were, in effect, endorsed by Australia’s signature to the agreement.

"As the New York Times editorial of 14 February 2004 observed:

The deal with Australia is a huge setback in the process of liberalising global agricultural trade. Poor nations whose only viable exports are agricultural goods are hampered by excessive protectionism. And by making a deal with Australia that leaves out sugar, Washington has jeopardised chances for meaningful progress on a hemispheric Free Trade Area of the Americas, and the latest round of negotiations at the World Trade Organization. As part of this effort to lower trade barriers, developing countries are rightly insisting that rich nations stop subsidising their farmers and open up their markets to competition.

The agreement sends a chilling message to the rest of the world. Even when dealing with an allied nation with similar living standards, the administration, under pressure from the Congress, has opted to continue coddling the sugar lobby, rather than dropping the most indefensible form of protectionism. This will only embolden the case of those around the world who argue that globalisation is a rigged game."