SMH 21/10/14 Joyce outlines plan to help farmers. by Dan...

SMH 21/10/14 Joyce outlines plan to help farmers. by Dan Harrison

Releasing a federal government green paper on agricultural competitiveness in Canberra on Monday, Mr Joyce, said the government wanted to help farmers get better returns for their products.

"A farmer that gets between 10 and 15 per cent of the final price when they've done the majority of the work is inherently unfair,'' he told the National Farmers Federation national congress.

The green paper also proposes measures to strengthen the hand of farmers in their dealings with resource companies, such as those seeking to extract coal seam gas. It sets out a series of principles it proposes as a basis for nationally consistent regulations that would be negotiated through the Council of Australian Governments.

The principles include requiring miners to obtain the agreement of farmers to access agricultural land, that farmers be entitled to financial compensation for access to their land, and that resource extraction not be allowed to damage water resources or agricultural land.

"Acquifers and waterways once destroyed cannot be made good"he said. "Agriculture can work with mining but mining's call must be subordinate to the protection of these vital assets."