Voicing the needs of Bundaberg’s growers

Bundaberg Fruit and Vegetable Growers (BFVG) new Chair, Joe Lyons, knows what it is like to have to make tough decisions. His family’s farming business has had to pivot from cattle and cropping, to banana growing and, finally, to avocados and macadamias in the wake of drought, disease and, now, the added pressure of insecure water supply due to the capacity reduction of Paradise Dam. Having a say when faced with issues that impact the region’s growers provided a prompt to become involved with BFVG, first as a director in 2012 leading to becoming Chair in 2020. “A lot of decisions that affect growers get made in the big cities, it is very easy for us to be left out of the conversation. It is very important to have advocates like BFVG to make sure that our voices are heard by all levels of government,” Mr Lyons said. The Lyons family made the move to Bundaberg from western Queensland 20 years ago, after years of battling drought in their broadacre cropping and cattle enterprise. The move to grow ladyfinger bananas was a steep learning curve. “We discovered we had Panama Tropical Race 1 in our ladyfingers so we had to make a shift. We looked at what crops were suited to our land and soil types that we enjoyed eating because then we knew other people would enjoy eating them too,” Mr Lyons said. The decision was made to grow avocados and macadamias at their property at Electra, west of Bundaberg. “For the next six years, as we pulled out banana blocks we replaced them with avocados, to the point now we have a much larger avocados operation than we ever were in bananas, in a hectare rate,” he said The Lyons chose to grow both shepard and hass avocados, providing an extended season from late February through to the end of July that runs concurrently with their macadamia crop. The decision was made based on the availability of a secure water supply. “Paradise Dam provided the water security needed to give growers the confidence that they could move their businesses forward,” Mr Lyons said. “If you start having an unreliable irrigation system or lose that water security, then there’s going to be some really tough decisions made in the future. We don’t want to see our trees die, we want to see the Dam’s lost capacity get reinstated.” According to Mr Lyons one of the main challenges they have faced is improving the soil across their property and the lessons learnt from their banana growing days haven’t been forgotten. “Avocados have a very weak root system, so they need good drainage and plenty of water in the same breath. We’ve put a lot of work into increasing our organic matter in our soils that provides a bit of a buffer, especially when you have extremes in seasons, going from drought to high rainfall,” Mr Lyons said. “Along with improving the soil quality we have also improved our resistance to soil borne diseases as well. With pests such as fruit spotting bug, we are now getting into chemistry that is more targeted to our needs and better on the environment, which is a plus for everyone. “From a farmer’s point of view, I can assure you that 99% of farmers are environmentalists as well. They want to look after the land, we’re not here to abuse it.”

New Chair at Bundaberg Fruit and Vegetable Growers, Joe Lyons.