Farmers welcome new Drought Finance Taskforce

“Drought not only hurts farmers and their businesses, it hurts small shops and service providers, rural communities and ultimately impacts on all Australians,” Ms Simson said.
“The NFF congratulates the Federal Government on continuing to empower farmers and communities to work through and manage drought.”
Ms Simson said banks provided critical services to help farmers and rural and regional businesses manage the uneven cash flow of agricultural production cycles.
“Banks are also a critical source of investment that help farm businesses grow.
“Bringing banks, the Government and farmer representatives together on a regular basis will provide a vital forum for taking the pulse of rural communities managing drought.”
The Taskforce will support real-time information flows on the financial health of drought impacted areas, and enable rapid responses to critical areas of need.
“Good drought policy is about building farmer resilience by creating the risk management tools needed at different stages of the agricultural business cycle, including drought.
“The NFF sees the Taskforce as playing an important role in assessing the effectiveness of existing risk management tools, identifying improvements and bringing about change.”