Farmers demand more control, higher payments for wind and solar projects

Farmers want to force renewable energy developers to maintain the agricultural productivity of farming land, and to pay more for hosting, with some fired up over the issue.

At their annual conference in Sydney on Wednesday, NSW Farmers called for more control over renewable energy projects.

Producers say they have been frustrated by a lack of planning and consultation on the rollout of renewable energy, including the location of transmission lines.

Delegates are also seeking payments to farmers hosting renewable energy projects to be extended for the life of the project and not the 25-year term currently being offered.

“Delegates are expressing their frustration … most are saying in living memory they can’t remember anything so badly thought through,” freshly re-elected president of NSW Farmers Xavier Martin said.

“The impact on the landscape on some of our prime agricultural land is just appalling.”

NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe acknowledged there had been problems with the rollout of renewable energy but said things were improving.

“I know many of you struggle with the renewable energy zones … the rollout is complicated but the rollout is well under way,” she told delegates on Wednesday.

“I’m not going to tell you that it’s perfect but it is turning it around.”

“I would hope that we are learning all the time from the mistakes of the past and we’re getting better on the way through,” she said of projects that had divided some communities.

NSW Premier Chris Minns, who also addressed the conference on Wednesday, described land use challenges as “massive”.

“I don’t have easy answers … coal-fired power stations, that we don’t own, are being closed down, progressively over the next 10 years,” he told reporters.

“And there’s a rush to get renewable energy generated inland to the east coast energy grid.” 

Farmers also want daylight savings wound back in NSW.

They say the practice, which has been in place in NSW since 1971, is unfair to those from regional communities.

“What was a scheme that started off to cover the summer months has now grown to half a year,” Mr Martin told AAP.

“Just when, for example, our little children on rural bus routes are getting to have the opportunity to wake up in daylight and go safely … to get on the bus, then they’re plunged back into darkness.”

However, Mr Minns ruled out any changes to the scheme.

“We’re not going to move … a major change would disrupt big parts of the NSW economy,” he said.

The power of the supermarkets was again discussed by farmers who called for greater fairness and expanded competition in the food and retail supply chain.

It followed a Woolworths employee being ejected from the NSW Farmers Horticulture meeting on Monday after failing to disclose that they worked for the supermarket giant.

Committee chair Jo Brighenti-Barnard, who was overseeing proceedings when sensitive grower information was being discussed, described the actions as underhanded. 

“Once we discovered they did work for Woolworths and didn’t identify themselves we thought ‘what are they actually doing there, why not be open and honest?’,” she told AAP.

Woolworths said it was not aware the employee was attending and called the incident “an unfortunate misunderstanding”.

The woman had attended in a private capacity as “a university student involved with a startup incubator that’s looking to create an app to support farmers”.

AAP