Farmers battle to survive worst agricultural crisis in living memory

The common international image of Australia as the 'Lucky Country' of agricultural plenty may require revision with the release of figures showing 80 per cent of farmers in spiralling debt, and 30 farmers leaving the land each week.

The Federal Government convened a National Rural Finance Summit in Canberra yesterday in an attempt to pull Australian agriculture out of what some analysts have described as its worst crisis in living memory.

According to government figures, just 20 per cent of Australia's 120,000 farmers are making a profit, with the rest owing a combined A$10 billion (HK$60.6 billion). Falling prices have seen wool growers record losses for the sixth consecutive year, while beef earnings have plummeted by 70 per cent.

The state of farming is grim news for a country where agricultural products make up more than a quarter of all exports.

Australians are frequently subjected to harrowing reports of the human cost of debt - the ejection of third or fourth generation farming families from their land, the migration of rural young to the cities, and the almost tangible despair that hangs over rural townships as banks move in to foreclose loans.

Exacerbating the situation is the lack of modern, intensive production methods in Australian farming. An estimated 99.6 per cent of all farms are still owned and managed by struggling individual families.