THE growing of food in the Riverland will become unsustainable unless renewable energy sources and improved farming practices are utilised, according to an international horticulture figure.
Renmark-based citrus expert Ian Tolley OAM – who has been involved in horticulture for approximately 70 years – said current agricultural practices needed to be changed.
“There’s going to be radical challenges,” Mr Tolley said.
“There is hope at the moment, and increasing confidence… that’s tapped into this feeling I’ve been having.
“But there is dissatisfaction with the present state (and) it needs an entire uprooting.”
Mr Tolley said the adoption of of renewable energy sources – such as battery and solar – on farms would lower costs, while also increasing the sustainability of agriculture.
“Graphite batteries are more efficient than lithium,” he said.
“There’s no heat, and the recharge rates are dozens of times faster.
“They think they will have a lifespan of 20 years, but then you can pull it apart and rebuild it.
“In a tractor you could take the engine out and use that whole area for batteries, and because you’ve got solar panels out back of the farm, you can recharge it every night yourself. So there’s no costs.”
Mr Tolley – who has been involved in research projects across the world – said an increasing number of organisations and countries reliant on farming were promoting the benefits of sustainable agriculture.
“In Europe there are many countries going to biological and re-producible horticulture and agriculture,” he said.
“I look to organisations that are progressive, to say we need to change our farming methods.
“There are a number of organisations, which didn’t exist a decade ago, that are catering to this and increasing access to sustainable processes.”
Mr Tolley said ensuring long-term health of the Murray-Darling system was necessary for irrigation to continue in the Riverland.
“Farming is our background in Australia, and while the country has been developed, it’s also been destroyed,” he said.
“It’s improving in South Australia, but that’s not the case for the rest of the country. The (eastern states) don’t see that.
“They think that’s a penalty on growers, and taking water away from what could be productive horticulture.”
