A blueprint to guide producers towards government climate mandates and supply chain sustainability demands will not include handing out punishments to those who do not reduce on-farm emissions.
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The revelations will allay one of the industry's long-held fears in how the government intended to clampdown on agriculture's carbon outputs.
However, Agriculture Minister Murray Watt told ACM Agri that stragglers who operate outside of developing government regulatory and policy regimes and supply chain and banking frameworks will effectively punish themselves by potentially losing access to markets and finance.
"Our approach is based more on working with the sector and providing incentives and support rather than punitive measures," he said.
"That is the approach we have taken in other sectors and that is what we will be doing with agriculture."
The era-shaping Agriculture and Land Sectoral Plan will seek to push the high-emitting industry to more sustainable practices to help reduce the nation's carbon footprint.
However, producer submissions to a recent sectoral plan consultation suggested a green transition at the scale and speed the government was demanding to meet its mandated 2030 and 2050 emissions targets must better help producers adapt low-carbon practices and technologies without compromising farm viability, trade and global and regional food security.
The sector plan will also be developed at a time when the resilience of Australian agriculture has been worn thin by sustained input price hikes, reduced productivity caused by extreme weather events, supply chain, infrastructure and workforce disruptions and low farm gate margins.
Mr Watt's comments follow last week's ABARES Outlook 2024 conference that focused heavily on climate change and sustainability issues.
He said the content was a sign that farmers and the ag supply chain "were aware that lifting sustainability standards" was key to keeping themselves in business and international markets open.
Meanwhile, ABARES data released last year showed that farm profits had fallen 23 per cent in recent years due to increased extreme weather events.
"Farmers can also see their colleagues adapting to climate change and the world isn't ending," Mr Watt said.
"For a long time the scaremongers have tried to say that doing something about climate change would harm productivity, but farmers are making changes now and lifting productivity and profits and reducing costs."
Mr Watt also recently told senate estimates that individual producers would not be required to hit net zero emissions as part of the nation's green transition.
