He said the funding would improve access to agricultural and veterinary (agvet) chemicals to put farmers on a more equitable footing with their international competitors.

“Agvet chemicals stop the spread of disease amongst our livestock and boost our productivity by eliminating damaging pests and diseases from our food and fibre crop,” Mr Joyce said. 

“Put simply, they are critical in helping us to produce some of the safest food in the world and driving profits back to the farm gate.”

 The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) is the Australian government regulator responsible for registration, quality assurance and compliance of agvet chemicals up to and including the point of retail sale.

As part of this commitment, Mr Joyce launched an assistance grants program to support the Research and Development Corporations (RDCs) to submit applications to the APVMA for industry-agreed priority uses of agvet chemicals.

 “RDCs can now receive funding of up to $50,000 per priority use to assist them in generating data and submitting an application to the APVMA,” Mr Joyce said.

Shadow Minister for Agriculture Joel Fitzgibbon said the $8 million was a re-announcement, and commented the government seemed to be good at those.

“While I welcome the money, it’s for a very good cause, you have to question its value when put up against the impact his relocation of the APVMA will have on that organisation, and its capacity to service farmers interests,” Mr Fitzgibbon said. 

“Decentralisation can be a good thing, if it comes with a good strategic plan, but this one has not been much more than a thought bubble.

“The APVMA has a large number of highly trained and professional people who are highly unlikely to make the move to Armidale, and that will all but destroy the APVMA’s capacity to serve both the chemical industry and farming interests.”