Planning with purpose grows disaster resilience in the agriculture sector
Farming is a continuous challenge, particularly in Queensland, Australia’s most disaster affected state.
The seemingly endless cycle of droughts, floods and bushfires places an enormous strain on Queensland’s agriculture sector, which makes an estimated $22.1 billion contribution to the state’s economy.
However, a joint initiative of the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund and the Queensland Government’s Drought and Climate Adaptation Program is helping farmers better manage weather, climate, and other disaster risks through the development and extension of business resilience planning processes.
Run by Queensland’s former Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF), now known as the Department of Primary Industries, the Farm Business Resilience Program (FBRP) aims to increase the capacity of farmers to holistically manage business risks, including natural disasters.
Since 2021 the $34 million FBRP has been instrumental in driving change and innovation across Queensland’s agriculture sector.
It delivers holistic risk management approaches that consider drought, flood and other disaster impacts within the context of the overall environmental, economic and social sustainability aspects of the farm business.
An extensive partner co-delivery model underpins the FBRP.
Key project partners include the Queensland Farmers Federation (QFF), CANEGROWERS Queensland, Growcom, CSIRO, Royal Flying Doctor Service, Rural Financial Counselling Services, regional natural resource management bodies, commercial consultants, and all levels of government.
Co-delivery of the FBRP with the Industry Recovery and Resilience Officer Program in response to the flooding and high intensity rainfall events in southern Queensland in 2021 and 2022 has further enhanced program delivery and disaster preparedness across southern Queensland.
The Industry Recovery and Resilience Officer Program is delivered by QFF and the Burnett Mary Regional Group and is jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland Governments under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).
Leading advisers and extension officers work with farmers across six agriculture commodity-based projects delivering customised business risk management planning services.
This collaborative co-design model improves support for farmers and allows changes to be made over time to fine-tune delivery.
The FBRP delivers unique and innovative approaches to resilience planning in agriculture throughout Queensland.
The program provides complete flexibility to participants in the way they can productively engage with different aspects of the program.
Multiple engagement channels create opportunities for participants to pick and choose processes that suit their learning styles and business needs at any particular time.
Engagement activities have made resilience planning front of mind for farmers, encouraging the consideration of the entire range of relevant risks and incorporating information and lessons learned into holistic business resilience plans.
Importantly, the program recognises that farmers exist on a continuum, where some need little support to achieve their objectives, while others need more.
The approach has delivered impressive results, with large numbers of farmers engaging in the program.
This includes developing specific plans to manage drought, disaster and other risks proactively by adopting new technologies and practices, and installing new infrastructure to reduce risks and improve business resilience.
Since the FBRP commenced, more than 2,300 individual producers have fully engaged in the program.
More than 24,000 participants have attended over 6,000 engagement sessions held across the state in the grazing, cropping and horticulture industries.
This has translated into the development of 1,012 new business resilience plans and the updating of 217 existing plans.
Practice changes at personal, family and business levels have also been high, with 1,640 examples recorded in the program to date.
Queensland farmers are also actively sharing their stories of involvement in the program, helping grow knowledge and capacity while demonstrating improved ability to manage the disaster risks that continue challenging farm businesses.
FBRP is building farmer capacity to survive and thrive in a riskier business environment impacted by a changing climate.
And there is more to come with the Australian Government committing to fund the program for another four years from the 2025-26 financial year, providing further opportunities to enhance approaches and achieve greater outcomes for the ag sector.
Through their involvement with the FBRP, DAF took out top spot in the Government category at the 2024 Queensland Resilient Australia Awards, rewarding them for their work creating resilience among local farmers.
