YOUR INDUSTRY
1 2 0 2 n m u t Au
VegNET RDO update BY SAM GRUBIŠA REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT OFFICER, VEGETABLESWA
W
ell, well, well… would you looky here? It appears the ‘stage five clinger’ that was 2020, just can’t let go. 2021’s Year of the Ox or Water Buffalo (depending on your ethnic legacy), kicked off with the flagrant volatility you’d expect from a PBR (Pro Bull Riding) bovine. As a symbol associated with hard work, patient strength and agriculture, you could have easily mistaken this as a sign that this year would be our year!
While the uncontrolled fires that tore through bushland and agricultural properties; a flood to our north causing a 20 per cent loss of early crops; another Queensland fruit fly incursion and a quarantine-acquired case of COVID-19 may have forced us to drop it down a few gears, our innate resilience will force the wheel of fortune to turn in our favour. Eventually! With the world around us becoming madder by the minute, a meeting with the recently convened Grower/Industry Regional Extension Advisory Group (REAG) confirmed my faith in the people of horticulture.
Between checking in on fire affected growers, as water bombers pinch water from their dam, and watching Facebook videos in disbelief as people I know, who can do nothing but stare as their life’s work is devoured by flood water… I couldn’t tell you if I was Arthur or Martha.
Here’s hoping the Ox is right and this year WILL be our year!
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WA Grower AUTUMN 2021
We met to discuss and finalise their included feedback recommendations for our five-year Regional Development Strategic Plan.
Their approval and support of the strategic plan, that Truyen and I created from nothing, was our final hurdle. And like a PBR bull at a gate, we absolutely smashed it! Now, as a self-proclaimed ‘Horticulture Unicorn’, my views on the matters that affect our industry are often divergent.
