VICTORIA'S Agriculture Minister faced a barrage of tough questions from Yarra Valley farmers last week. PAUL SELLARS reports

It started off as a routine speech in which Joe Helper was meant to give his vision for agriculture's future.

But last week's Agribusiness Yarra Valley dinner was a vivid reminder that a well-prepared speech offers little protection from farmers asking tough questions about local issues central to their livelihoods.

The mood in the room was lighthearted enough while Mr Helper spoke about the Government's $205 million Future Farming Strategy and the need to boost productivity to stay afloat in agriculture.

But things turned serious when an angry cherry grower asked the first question of the night, and the mood stayed that way until question time ended.

Gordon Chapman wanted to know how farmers were supposed to stay viable in the face of continual water claw-backs and bans on new water licences.

"We are being told they want agriculture and horticulture in the Yarra Valley but we are not allowed to use the water," Mr Chapman said.

"It's a joke; we won't be here."

Neither Mr Chapman nor various other members of the audience seemed remotely satisfied when Mr Helper cited Sunraysia in his reply.

"Sunraysia irrigators thought it would be the end of the world when allocations fell below 100 per cent for the first time ... but there are many farmers who have adjusted," he said.

"Competition for water will always increase and the only way to operate under that is to increase water-use efficiency."

Mr Chapman was quick to retort that local farmers had already dramatically cut water use, switched varieties and invested heavily in irrigation technology to do just that.

He later added "we can't do any more than what we are doing" and that "all the Minister talked about was Sunraysia ... that's got nothing to do with the Yarra Valley".

"An unfortunate choice of words" was how one member of the audience described Mr Helper's response to another question about the closure of local research stations.

Horticultural producers wanted justification for the end of land-based research catering to local needs and later said that nothing in Mr Helper's reply provided it.

"It's not that we are doing less research," Mr Helper told them, refering to the Government's increased emphasis on biotechnology.

"It's just that the research we are doing is at the pointier end of the equation."

It didn't appear to get much easier for Mr Helper from there.

Nursery operators were angry about quarantine inspection fees. Grape growers fearful of smoke taint wanted to know why controlled burns seemed to coincide so precisely with harvest time.

Even the Department of Primary Industries' Horticultural Industry Network program, launched with much fanfare last year to improve extension services to industry, was not spared.

Yarra Valley Wine Growers Association general manager Richard Howden told Mr Helper that industry development officers were hindering rather than helping the provision of extension to growers.

"We previously had direct contact with DPI which was fantastic (but that) seems to have gone," Mr Howden said.

"A level of bureaucracy has been put in there ... extension isn't happening down to growers and it's getting to the point where it's very frustrating."

By the end of the event, there was almost something of the olive branch in the flowers that WinHort Yarra Ranges coordinator Alison Brinson presented to Mr Helper.

"You said you would accept a bouquet and I don't think there have been too many tonight," Ms Brinson said.