Australia will lose its biggest sub-tropical crop research station if the NSW Government proceeds with plans to close eight agricultural research centres.
Farmers' representative groups say closure of the NSW Centre for Tropical Agriculture at Alstonville, near Ballina on the NSW north coast, will have '' huge repercussions'' for the state's 500 banana growers and on macadamia exports worth $300million a year.
They claim closure of the 48ha site would sacrifice world-class research programs for the sake of a ''5km move down the road'' to Wollongbar.
The chief executive of the Australian Macadamia Society, Jolyon Burnett, said, ''We will lose decades of valuable research, despite investing millions of dollars in specialist research projects over the years. It will be at least eight years before we get significant results from new plantings.
''It makes no sense to move the macadamia orchards at Alstonville to Wollongbar, so we'll lose those trees when the land is sold to developers for blue-ribbon real estate.
''We're not prepared to let this happen to our industry, and we intend to fight it.''
Representatives from 13 NSW sub-tropical crop grower associations covering coffee, tea, lychees, avocados, bananas, stonefruit, blueberries, macadamia and custard apples will meet today in Lismore to discuss a plan to save the research centre and about 25 jobs.
NSW Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald has defended the closures, which will affect more than 200 staff, as part of ''a comprehensive review'' of science and research. He said the eight research stations were ''no longer needed'' by the department, most were smaller offices and the department's research operations would be restructured to ''make them more modern and efficient''.
Those facilities earmarked for closure include the National Centre for Greenhouse Horticulture at Gosford, one of the biggest to be affected with more than 70 jobs at stake; the Centre for Irrigated Agriculture at Griffith; and the climate adaptation research programs at Condobolin.
A soil carbon study established in 1921 at Glen Innes the world's second longest running research program in this field has also been axed.
The chief executive of the Australian Banana Growers Council, Tony Heidrich, said the Government had not consulted growers about the potential implications of shutting down the NSW tropical research station. ‘‘We had no notification, no discussions with senior government people. We only found out when some of the research staff rang to let us know what was going on.’’
Mr Heidrich said the growers’ council recently introduced a research levy to raise $6 million a year to invest in new research projects. After Cyclone Larry destroyed North Queensland’s banana crops in 2006, causing a banana shortage for a year, there was ‘‘talk throughout the industry about the future need for geographical diversification, with NSW playing a major role’’. The council recently had discussions with Department of Primary Industries senior staff about plans to increase investment in subtropical research.
‘‘There was no hint of any closures or that we would have nowhere to invest the money we intended to raise from a growers’ levy. It’s a crazy situation now. ‘‘Our only option is Nambour [in Queensland] where there is some research capacity for subtropical banana research.’’
A former CSIRO divisional chief, Dr John Williams, warned that cutting investment in agricultural research could affect Australia’s ability to contribute to aid programs in developing countries.