Media Release: 6 April 2020
- 22 grants valued at $2 million under Round 5 of the Access to Industry Priority Uses of Agvet Chemicals assistance grants program.
- The grants help Australian farmers’ access safe and effective agvet chemicals to manage priority pest and diseases.
Australian Government funding of $2 million will improve farmer access to priority agricultural and veterinary (agvet) chemicals to safely and effectively treat pests, diseases and weeds.
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said the Access to Industry Priority Uses of Agvet Chemicals assistance grants program aimed to boost farm productivity.
“It is critical our famers have access to approved agvet chemicals because they can directly affect production yields in plant and livestock industries,” Minister Littleproud said.
“These grants will address industry-identified priority uses in a range of plant and animal commodities such as finfish, chickens, macadamia, rhubarb and spinach crops.
“A focus will be to improve primary producer access to agvet chemicals so they can manage uncommon or emerging pests and diseases.
“The industries dealing with these new threats can find it difficult to access agvet chemical products as it may not be as profitable for chemical companies to register those uses in Australia.
“These grants help industry with the costs of data generation to support applications to the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority.
“The APVMA must approve the specific uses of every product, based on its assessment of information contained in a comprehensive data package provided by applicants.
“Dairy Australia, Australian Eggs, Fisheries RDC, Hort Innovation and AgriFutures Australia will work with industry and chemical companies to reduce these costs and open up access.”
For more details about the Access to Industry Priority Uses of Agvet Chemicals assistance grants click on this link.
- The grants program forms part of the Australian Government’s six-year $14.3 million investment to improve access to safe and effective chemicals.
- Approximately $9.8 million of the committed funding has been provided to assist with data generation to support an application to the APVMA that seeks to gain, maintain or broaden access to priority uses of agvet chemicals.
