Southern Queensland primary producers are soon to have support from specialised Resilience Officers through the Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).
The Resilience Officers will help primary producers recover from recent natural disasters and plan for future events.
The Industry Recovery and Resilience Officer (IRRO) program will support the producers in 22 Local Government Areas which have been affected by natural disasters.
Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries, Mark Furner said the IRRO program would initially focus on recovery activities.
“During the first six months, the IRROs will help primary producers access services, grants and other activities to assist their recovery, with the following 18 months devoted to assisting producers develop resilience plans for their business,” Mr Furner said.
“Central to their work will be helping primary producers to better determine the risk to the crops, infrastructure, and land from the potential impact of climate-driven disasters and then develop appropriate risk-mitigation strategies.”
The Federal Minister for Emergency Management, Murray Watt said the recovery was a priority for Queensland primary producers and small business owners who had been impacted by a number of disasters since November 2021.
“Multiple heavy rain and flood events have caused widespread damage to primary production and the agriculture sector across large areas of Central and Southern Queensland, the Wide Bay-Burnett, and South-East Queensland,” Senator Watt said.
“Four Industry Recovery and Resilience Officers will be employed for up to two years to work with industry, Local Governments and impacted producers.”
He said the officers would provide support for primary producers for short, medium and longer-term recovery needs, including assistance to develop industry-specific, risk-based, on-farm disaster resilience and recovery plans.
