Agriculture: Ongoing initiatives
Drought assistance
The Australian Government continues to support drought-affected farmers and agriculturally dependent small business operators. More than $1.4 billion of drought assistance has been provided to farmers by the Australian Government since 2001. Since the Australian Government's improvements in accessibility to drought support announced in October 2006, more farmers have been able to access Exceptional Circumstances assistance than ever before.
In the last five months, the number of farmers receiving Exceptional Circumstances income support increased by nearly 74 per cent. In the three months to March 2007, business support applications approved were 49 per cent more than the average of the previous four quarters.
In response to the severity and length of this drought, further measures to assist farmers and farm families have been introduced. Increased funding has been provided to the Rural Financial Counselling Service to help meet the demand drought has placed on it. Professional Advice and Planning Grants have been introduced to help farmers get advice about managing their finances, stock and natural resources during the drought.
For the first time, Exceptional Circumstances assistance is now available to agriculturally dependent small business operators whose clients are from Exceptional Circumstances declared areas.
The Australian Government encourages all farmers and agriculturally dependent small business operators to call the National Drought Hotline – 13 23 16 to see what type of assistance is available to them.
Agriculture Advancing Australia
The Australian Government will provide $254.7 million from 2007-08 to 2010-11 to continue to help farmers manage changing circumstances through the Government's Agriculture Advancing Australia (AAA) policy package.
AAA is an integrated package of programmes to help primary producers and rural land managers in agriculture and fishing to be more competitive, sustainable and profitable.
Improvements will better assist primary producers. The main improvements will be:
- a doubling of support – to $40 million over four years – for the Advancing Agricultural Industries Programme (previously known as Industry Partnerships) to help industries spot changes early and put industry-led actions in place to capture opportunities and respond to emerging risks;
- the new FarmBis to be delivered nationally to ensure producers across Australia have equal and consistent access to training and education opportunities; and
- easier access to FarmHelp support for families in severe financial hardship by allowing earlier recipients a second chance to obtain advice and training and/or establishment grant. The re-establishment grant is also to be increased by 50 per cent to $75,000. The maximum asset limit for obtaining the full grant will also be raised for those producers that choose to leave agriculture.
National Landcare Programme
The Australian Government is providing $147.9 million over the four years to 2010-11 for Landcare activities. Landcare is an iconic natural resource management institution that provides an entry point for the community to help improve the productive and environmental value of our landscape for the long term. The Australian Government's National Landcare Programme (NLP) will continue to play a key role in strengthening the links between farmers and regional Natural Resource Management (NRM).
It will also continue to support the grass-roots Landcare movement and increase the sustainability of the agricultural sector. Around 75 per cent of farmers and land managers are involved in Landcare activities or benefit from knowledge acquired through the movement.
National Food Industry Strategy
The Australian food industry will be more globally competitive as a result of a package totalling $75.7 million over four years from 2007-08 to 2010-11.
The package builds on the successes of the five-year National Food Industry Strategy (NFIS) which will finish on 30 June 2007.
The package will continue and build on four key NFIS programmes:
- the Food Innovation Grants programme ($54.2 million);
- the Technical Market Access Programme ($15 million);
- the International Food Standards programme ($2.5 million); and
- the Australian Food Industry Council ($4 million).
The funding package is designed to improve the industry's global competitiveness by focussing on improved uptake of innovation, increasing investment in research and development and government-to-government negotiations to ensure that market access and trading conditions are based on sound science rather than technical barriers to trade.