In ‘Our Future State: Advancing Queensland’s Priorities’ the Queensland Government outlined how industries and government should contribute to community well-being. Agriculture’s contribution lies in generating economic activity, job creation and the Great Barrier Reef protection. While lack of data prevents the measurement of some attributes in the government plan, composite sustainability indices have been used worldwide to represent the wider objectives of “triple bottom line” economics (growth and throughput), social justice (fair and equitable distribution of the wealth) and environment-friendliness (compatibility with the preservation of natural ecosystems). One such approach is an innovative self-designed iSENSE index—indicators of Sustainability: ENvironmental, Social, and Economic—that is based on 15 indicators with a maximum overall score of 30. The featured indicators are based on a literature review and represent commonly accepted parameters. In this study, iSENSE indicators have been enumerated for the analysis of three Queensland sectors: Agriculture, Mining, and Manufacturing. The results show that while Mining leads the group in terms of economic indicators, it is Agriculture that is the most socially oriented and environment-friendly. Overall, iSENSE score is equal 16 for both Agriculture and Mining, whilst Manufacturing stands at 13. While these results should be taken with caution, they can be used as a guidance for prospective policy proposals in conjunction with the sound ex post impact assessments around Queensland industries. Applying composite assessment tools can help to identify challenges related to environmental, economic and social impact, in the course of developing sustainable agriculture.

The selective use of chemical products plays an important role in increasing production, improving the quality of Queensland’s agricultural produce and enabling producers to earn reasonable returns on their investments. Effective pest management, therefore, helps deliver high quality, healthy and affordable food for all consumers. The efficiency of policy tools such as chemical use licensing hinges critically on supply-side knowledge levels. Although licence applications are available online, information can be difficult to find and often businesses need to contact the state authority to seek further assistance in completing their licence applications. The aim of this study is therefore to identify the benefits for the users of agricultural chemicals from improvements in licensing application process. Based on a rigorous literature review and statistical analysis of available data, this study modelled the per day/per application value of the use of crop protection products in Queensland. Results indicate a potential saving by farmers due to a faster process for chemical licence applications. Extreme values of these savings range from $87 thousand to $52 million per annum, with actual ones falling in between depending on the coincidence and level of individual risk factors. Since the chemicals subject to licensing are used beyond agriculture and are utilised not only for crop protection, the results of this analysis are thus underestimated, which implies even greater benefits for the economy. It therefore seems important to update the current licence application platform so that applicants can lodge their application in a more user-friendly and synchronised manner.

Tomato is an important vegetable crop that contributes significantly to income security and healthy diets of people worldwide. Queensland produces the majority of tomatoes for fresh consumption accounting for 40 per cent of national supply in Australia. The purpose of this study is to provide an analytical summary of the Queensland tomato supply chain, by focusing on margins along the supply chain. For that, a representative tomato gross margin model in Southern Queensland was used to analyse the estimated income, grouped variable costs and the gross margin for four tomato varieties: gourmet, round, grape, and cherry. The mean yields of the sampled varieties varied considerably, depending on climatic conditions, pests and diseases, the season and whether tomatoes are grown on the ground or trellises. Driven by high revenues and relatively low freight costs, grape tomatoes have the highest gross margin ($73 thousand per hectare) as well as the highest market price at $4.64 per kilo compared to other varieties. The cost of growing the crop up to harvest can exceed $10,000 per hectare with high labour requirement for harvesting and packing. While costs for machinery, fertiliser, herbicide, weed control, insecticide, and fungicide largely remain constant across four tomato varieties, it is planting and irrigation that makes a difference. With average value of $9303 per hectare, planting costs range from $5134 for round tomatoes to $12,241 for cherry tomatoes. The results of this gross margin analysis can be helpful to explore profitability at the farm level, allowing regional and international comparisons.