'Warding off biosecurity threats and embracing climate opportunities'

Mr Littleproud opened the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) Outlook conference, which revealed agriculture is set for a record $81 billion year.

"We are at a sweet spot in agriculture because of the seasons and our commodity prices, but now is the time to make the reforms to make the changes that grow Australian agriculture," Mr Littleproud said.

The Agriculture Minister said biosecurity threats were one of the challenges that "keeps me awake at night". Many have moved across the globe and were "right on our doorstep".

"Many of these threats are new and evolving and so we have to change our approach to addressing them and mitigating them," he said.

Mr Littleproud spruiked the $1 billion the government had invested in biosecurity over the past two budgets, which has led to more boots and detection dogs on the ground, 3D x-ray technology at airports and shipping container tracking technology.

"We're going to go from around 5 million containers to about 8.5 million containers by the end of the decade," Mr Littleproud said.

"We'll know whether a container was sitting in Africa two years ago. It might have come from Italy where there may be no threat, but two years ago it was sitting in a paddock in Africa which means it is a real and present danger to Australian agriculture."

Mr Littleproud also promoted climate adaptation opportunities, with government programs that reward farmers financially, while giving them access to premium markets.

He pointed out Australia the first country to develop a method to measure improvements in biodiversity, which other countries were looking to adopt.

"Because we have led the world on this, it means that we are setting the rules for this around the world," Mr Littleproud said.

"We're also developing a brand that our farmers will be able to put on their beef, on their sheep, on their wool that they export around the world. They'll have a biodiversity seal that's internationally recognised and they'll get them a premium."

Although vast opportunities awaited agriculture in the carbon space, Mr Littleproud said the government was putting safeguards in place to protect productive land from passive investors.

Mr Littleproud and future Agriculture Ministers will have the power to veto on-farm Emission Reduction Fund carbon projects that take up more than one-third of a property.

"That doesn't mean they can't go beyond 33 per cent of a property, but just means that they have to continue to produce agricultural production," he said.

"They have to be able to prove that this ERF project and the biodiversity payments they'll get will support those regional communities that are supporting them."

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