AGFORCE has urged the federal government to rethink its drought assistance policy and recognise existing frameworks miss the mark as primary producers across Queensland continue to suffer the worst drought in a generation.
At a meeting with Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce yesterday, AgForce chief executive officer Charles Burke, along with representatives of the National Farmers' Federation and NSW Farmers, reiterated the need for drought policy reform. The lobbyists presented Mr Joyce with a set of urgent recommendations aimed at addressing the barriers to those in genuine need of federal assistance.
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"Queensland producers are operating under an unprecedented set of conditions that are well beyond their control or capacity to prepare for and need further effective assistance," Mr Burke said.
"At yesterday's meeting, we presented an agreed set of recommendations which require the urgent attention of the Minister and which were aimed at addressing the barriers to those in genuine need of federal assistance.
"These recommendations are not new and many have been raised previously with the Minister, his office and the Department when existing drought schemes were first introduced and again last year."
The recommendations presented yesterday included:
- Simplifying applications for the Farm Household Allowance and applying farmer-friendly asset and off-farm income tests that don't act against drought preparedness and management efforts;
- Extending access to the FHA for farm workers so they don't have to leave employment or the local area to apply;
- Getting better primary lender support and extending repayment periods for concessional loans so repayment is not required before farms have fully recovered;
- Provide greater relief from immediate financing costs by reducing loan interest to be in line with the actual cost to government;
- Extending further funding to enable access to concessional loans for farm-dependent rural businesses;
- Provide further funding for the well-received water infrastructure rebate which addresses animal welfare concerns and could be extended to include resilience-building improvements;
- Provide emergency income to drought-affected local governments, such as grants for infrastructure projects like wild dog and macropod fencing.
Mr Burke said preliminary and distressing results of a drought survey of AgForce members reiterated the need for urgent action.
"With the end of the current northern wet season approaching and with below average rainfall again received in many areas many of our members are facing their fourth season without significant, or even moderate, income," Mr Burke said.
"We welcome the government's proposal announced today to deliver an economic stimulus package to provide employment opportunities in drought-affected communities and look to the government to consult with rural groups in developing that proposal.
"However, these current measures miss the mark in terms of what is required and we urge the Minister to complete consideration of our recommendations as soon as possible so as to help ensure farming families who run viable businesses which contribute to our economy are not destroyed by a near unprecedented weather event."
Survey results
Preliminary results from more than 100 respondents across 30 shires to the AgForce Drought Survey started on 8 April show:
Livestock
87 per cent were running less than 75pc of their long term livestock carrying capacity and 22 pc less than a quarter
Comments: Turnoff at lower weights and prices impacted incomes and reduced capacity to cover costs, flowing through to undermine enterprise viability. This compounded by significantly increased workload (e.g. early weaning) and supplementary feeding costs over extended period. Reduced calving rates (e.g. 90pc down to 40 - 70pc) and heavy destocking point towards an extended recovery period and debt likely needed to restock in many cases.
Cropping
Of those that grow grain, forage or fibre crops (covering 41,500 ha cultivation) 38 pc had up to halved the area planted and 25pc had a 50 to 75pc reduction in area planted and 8pc had not planted at all.
Comments: Some growers had not had crops since 2012, or had much reduced yields in 2013 and 2014 due to a lack of follow-up rainfall, with a lack of subsoil moisture for the 2015 winter season. High electricity prices or lack of overland and watercourse flows has curtailed opportunities to irrigate.
Water
61 pc had less than half their potential surface water supply and 16 pc had less than 10pc
Comments: Due to rainfall deficiencies surface waters reduction has been a feature of this drought. Heavy reliance on groundwater supplies with ongoing pumping costs and water infrastructure development has been a key activity with the Emergency Water Infrastructure Rebate well received. Desilting a common activity with calls for this to be included (available funds held for restocking) as well as agistment enterprises and Water Use Efficiency improvements for irrigation infrastructure.
Financial
45pc had experienced up to a halving of their gross income, 30pc a halving to ¾ reductions and 18 pc greater than a 75pc reduction. Aligned with this 23pc of respondents had increased their total debt by 26 to 50 pc and 10 pc had more than doubled their debt levels as a direct result of the current drought. Two thirds reported that their total farm and non-farm assets were reduced by 11 to 50pc and 7pc estimated that their assets had more than halved.
Comments: Value decline hard to estimate due to lack of sales but devaluations has impacted on equity positions with banks, off-farm asset sales (some to fund retirement) and income sources relied on to meet financial commitments, many near limit on borrowing.
Comparative Impact
In terms of the relative impacts on the environment, financially and personally 45pc, 66pc and 59pc of the respondents respectively rated this drought worse than previous droughts they had experienced. Less than 7pc rated this drought as better.
Comments: Of the 55 respondents who supplied additional information on enterprise impacts 40pc identified wild dogs, 58pc identified plague proportions of macropods, 58pc identified depressed markets (albeit with some recent improvement) with flow on effects from the live export suspension decision and 11pc identified lack of kill space and meatworks actions.
