Since the coronavirus outbreak began, Australians have been reassured that the country is not going to run out of food and can in fact feed itself three times over.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
National Farmers' Federation president Fiona Simson has denounced a 60 Minutes segment's claims that food supply was vulnerable due to water access restrictions.
Related reading
However, there are a growing number of voices calling for Australia to become more self-sufficient.
NSW Farmers are the latest to back irrigator groups, industry and politicians, including Deputy Premier John Barilaro, in asking for urgent changes to be made to the Murray Darling Basin Plan to shore up food supply.
"While our food security is in a strong position thanks to farmers across NSW and the country, there are farmers in the Southern Basin who cannot grow food crops due to zero water allocation," NSW Farmers President James Jackson said.
"It is an exceptional circumstance (COVID-19) and we must look at all options to boost local food production through these unparalleled times.
"A root and branch review of the impact of the Murray Darling Basin Plan on food production is well overdue and we are asking the NSW Government to call for a Royal Commission to investigate whether there is a better way of balancing food production with environmental outcomes."
SunRice chairman Laurie Arthur said at the current rate of demand the company would be out of Australian rice by the end of this year.
"We are receiving less water then we have in the past as a result of both state and federal water reforms," Mr Arthur said.
"The prediction for the crop we're just about to harvest, is that we'll get a bit over 40,000 tonnes, that represents about 25 per cent of our Australian demand."
Mr Arthur said while SunRice were experts at moving rice around the world, they could not rely on other countries being prepared to continue exporting.
"Countries are protecting their own food security," Mr Arthur said.
"When we produce Australian grown rice we can guarantee self-sufficiency because we're not reliant on international supply chains."
Mr Arthur said the company had been in high-level discussions with the government, communicating its situation and offering potential solutions.
"The easiest solution is to make water available for Australian rice growers, we are the best rice growers in the world and I don't say that lightly," he said.
Southern Riverina Irrigators chairman and organiser of the 'Can the Plan' rally Chris Brooks said the government only had to turn the water on to not be reliant on other countries and logistics to feed Australia.
"On the east coast we need 7.35 million tonnes of wheat per annum, the last two years we've grown between five and six million tonnes of wheat," Mr Brooks said.
"In a pandemic situation we are relying on land and sea logistics to get food to the people on the east coast, that is a very large risk to take."
In an open letter from NFF to 60 Minutes, Ms Simson said international wheat imports equated to four per cent in 2018/19 and six per cent in 2019/20 of overall Australian domestic demand and occurred due to drought.
