Barnaby Joyce has lamented the lack of time spent talking about the importance of agriculture and water to Australia's prosperity.
Opening the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences outlook conference, the acting prime minister said it was apt he had the temporary title on Tuesday.
"This is not parochial," he told the gathering in Canberra.
"This is logic."
Mr Joyce said it was disappointing there was at times a lack of attention given to agricultural issues in favour of issues that made Australians neither richer or poorer.
"We have got to get off the political glossy pages and on to more substantial debates that will actually determine our nation's future."
He outlined the coalition's achievements in country-of-origin labelling, overcoming the backpacker tax issue and again pushed his policy of decentralisation.
Mr Joyce applauded the country's biosecurity system, warning Australia could not afford a major breach.
"Foot and mouth disease would be a $50 billion hit to our economy," he said.
The nation should be wise enough to recognise that agriculture - as a pillar of the economy - must be politically supported at the highest levels.
"Our nation should be proud that their presence in the global economy is fundamentally underpinned by the noble pursuit of feeding and clothing people," he said.
"And those families that do it must therefore be a breed of the most noble people in humanity".
Mr Joyce also foreshadowed a visit to Tasmania on Tuesday afternoon to inspect the construction of a new dam.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Share
