One year on from the commencement of the Future Drought Fund and pivotal programs are now supporting farmers and regions to build resilience to future droughts.
Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management, David Littleproud said the ground-breaking
$5 billion Future Drought Fund was a long term, sustained investment of $100 million each year to build drought preparedness.
“A year ago, we launched eight practical programs that are now well underway and delivering for our farmers and communities across the country,” Minister Littleproud said.
“We’re harnessing innovation and putting boots on the ground to help farmers and communities adopt technologies and practices that build drought resilience.
“Eight adoption and innovation hubs are now set up across Australia, connecting farmers, agribusinesses and communities with drought resilience experts and contributing to the design of new technologies and practices.
“A Science to Practice Forum is underway this week connecting the hubs with farmers, researchers, business owners, industry and community representatives with over 750 registrations.
“We’re building better land management practices to create drought resilient landscapes by investing in 80 on ground projects that help farmers learn about and trial techniques that keep their land and soils healthy and productive in times of drought.
“We’re providing better climate information that’s more accessible. Prototypes have become available for the Climate Services for Agriculture platform and the Drought Resilience Self-Assessment Tool for user testing.
“Farmers in four pilot regions will help co-design and test the tools. We’ll continue to work with farmers through these pilots so we can provide the best available climate and resilience information in a way that’s practical and directly relevant to farm businesses.
“We’re working on better risk management with state and territory governments to build the business planning capabilities of farmers and producing regional drought resilience plans that identify the most important things to do to build drought resilience.
“We’re also building more resilient communities—developing a new generation of at least 480 rural leaders across 12 regions and establishing a strong nationwide mentoring network to drive action on drought.
“The Networks to Build Drought Resilience program is open which will build community capacity by strengthening social and community networking, support, engagement and wellbeing.”
“In this year’s Budget we announced an additional $170.5 million over the next
3 years, so we can continue to provide farmers, regional and rural communities with the tools they need for building drought resilience.
“We will continue to engage with stakeholders, roll out the programs and allocate additional funding in future years under this flagship initiative of this Australian Government.”
“The Future Drought Fund is an important part of the Government’s Drought Response, Resilience and Preparedness Plan to deliver the support Australian farmers and communities need to be sustainable and productive.”
Find out more about the Future Drought Fund and its programs here: www.agriculture.gov.au/ag-farm-food/drought/future-drought-fund