Tasmanian farmers will receive an extra $4.8 million in support to help them through the ongoing dry spell, the state government has announced.
Minister for Primary Industries and Water Jane Howlett said the funding is needed despite recent rainfall “that certainly hasn’t broken the drought”.
“We need many, many days of rain and then of course we need spring and some warmer weather to encourage growth in our soil,” she said.
“Our farmers have had really, really tough challenges.”
The package includes $150,000 for TasFarmers, $175,000 for Rural Business Tasmania, $200,000 for Rural Alive and Well and $275,000 for Biosecurity Tasmania.
A further $1 million will go towards a drought assistance implementation program, $1.5 million for water resilience and mapping and $1.5 million for additional sailings and fodder if required.
TasFarmers CEO Nathan Celman said their funding will help connect producers with support services and advice on how to prepare for future droughts.
“The $150,000 grant … will go a long way to helping us extend our drought coordination efforts across the state,” he said.
“At the moment producers have a lot of concerns around fodder availability, but we’re also hearing a lot of stories about the need for water storages to fill up before that critical summer period. We need to really make sure that we have a good spring break.”
Lee Whiteley, CEO of Rural Alive and Well, said his organisation has seen a surge in demand for support services in recent months.
“We continue to see the impact of drought and other factors on the land in terms of the well-being of farmers and their families and their communities by extension of that,” Whiteley said.
“There’s no question that this is having an impact on people. RAW is excited about … getting in early on those conversations, [which] can just change the whole trajectory of the outcome of those stories.”
“For us, this is extremely important because we want to be able to make sure we’re providing enough supply so that we’re not actually having people out on land that are looking for support and aren’t able to access it.”
