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Welcome to the latest edition of the South-West WA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub (SW WA Hub) newsletter.
SW WA Hub team members have been out and about recently, including at Merredin for a great few days of interaction and learning as part of the Future Drought Fund Science to Practice Forum. Read on to find out more.
The SW WA Hub continues to have on-the-ground impact. In less than a year, 22 projects with Hub involvement, worth about $18 million, have hit the ground in our region or are soon to commence. Stay tuned for coming announcements about new projects.
Other initiatives funded by the Future Drought Fund are also delivering tangible benefits in our region. We encourage farmers to try out the Drought Resilience Self-Assessment Tool – DR.SAT, which provides information and ideas for farmers to thrive in a changing climate.
Please feel free to forward this monthly newsletter to colleagues, friends or clients.
Caption: Facilitator Andrew Bell, left, in conversation with Nik Callow, The University of WA, and Richard George, the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD), following their presentations on the WaterSmart Dams and WaterSmart Farms projects.
Science to Practice Forum a success
Innovative tools and practices to help manage drought risks were in the spotlight last week during the second annual Future Drought Fund Science to Practice Forum. The SW WA Hub hosted an interactive viewing of the event at the DPIRD Merredin Dryland Research Institute, which was attended by interested people and stakeholders.
Caption: Noongar Land Enterprise Group (NLEG) Board member and Beverley landholder Oral McGuire is among the people featured in a new video about the SW WA Hub.
New video showcases Hub
The Future Drought Fund has produced a great new video, debuted at its recent Science to Practice Forum, featuring some of the people involved with the SW WA Hub. This video outlines how the Hub aims to improve the drought resilience and preparedness of local farmers and their communities, and foster agricultural innovation.
New soil coordinator
Scientist Jenni Clausen will deliver best practice soil information in the new role of SW WA Hub Regional Soil Coordinator, funded by the Australian Government's National Landcare program. She is based at SoilsWest at Murdoch University.
Caption: Wheatbelt Regional Advisory Committee members and SW WA Hub and Grower Group Alliance staff during the committee's recent 'kick off' meeting held at Merredin and online.
‘Knowledge network’ gains momentum
The SW WA Hub’s ‘knowledge network’ has started in earnest, with meetings for Regional Node Leads and Regional Advisory Committees (RACs) being held in recent weeks.
The Mid West and Gascoyne Coastal; Southern Rangelands and Wheatbelt RACs have had their first meetings, and the South West RAC will meet soon. The Regional Node Leads have also met online.
An important early task for the RACs is to provide feedback on draft Drought Resilience Situation Analyses.
Next Agtech Meetup event in Merredin
SW WA Hub Knowledge Broker Tanya Kilminster will be on a panel of experts at a WA Agtech Meetup event to be held at Merredin on June 29.
The event will address the topic 'emerging agrifood tech & attracting investment', and will feature regional leaders in agricultural innovation plus up-and-coming agtech start-ups pitching their new technology.
Register interest for farm business program
Farm Business Resilience Program courses will be held soon in Peel, Carnarvon and Perth. The courses run for eight weeks and include a pre-program business health check, four days of in-person workshops, professional mentoring, and an independent assessment of your new farm business plan.
This program is supported by DPIRD, through funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.
Drought tool delivers solutions to farmers
The Drought Resilience Self-Assessment Tool – DR.SAT launched last year by the Future Drought Fund, gives WA farmers information and ideas to thrive in a changing climate.
All farmers can get free personalised details about their farm with satellite images of historic and current climate conditions (updated roughly every six days) as well as climate projections of rainfall and temperature for their property up to 2050.
The tool is being updated throughout 2022 with specific information for regions and commodities, arming farmers with practical solutions to challenges they face. Currently, cropping and sheep farmers in the 'WA Sheep-Wheatbelt' can access tailored information. The next release will include information for WA dairy producers and expand cropping to include all dryland cropping areas of WA.
Learn about Future Drought Fund
The $5 billion Future Drought Fund (FDF) is providing secure, continuous funding for drought resilience initiatives and will help Australian farmers and communities prepare for the impacts of drought.
From July 2020, $100 million is being made available each year to support Australian farmers and communities to prepare for and become more resilient to the effects of future drought. This will:
- Make agriculture more productive and profitable
- Enhance the wellbeing of our farming communities
- Improve the sustainability and resilience of the natural resources on which agriculture depends.
To receive regular email updates directly from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund, subscribe via the ‘Have your say’ webpage.
