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Welcome to the latest edition of the South-West WA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub (SW WA Hub) newsletter.
The SW WA Hub has been busy engaging with our 46-member-strong Regional Advisory Committees to fine-tune drought resilience priority projects. These will soon be further ground truthed with farmers and industry. Read on to find out more.
We have also been on the road speaking with Hub Partners and stakeholders at a number of industry events, providing updates about our activities and proposed Hub priorities.
Make sure you look out for us and our new Grower Group Alliance (GGA)/ SW WA team members at coming events. Scroll down to read the full story about our new recruits.
Please feel free to forward this monthly newsletter to colleagues, friends or clients.
Caption: Grower Group Alliance CEO Rikki Foss, second from left, with new GGA/ SW WA Hub staff members Jo Wisdom, left (Hub Innovation Manager), Theo Nabben (Hub Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Manager and Adoption Officer) and Maddison McNeil (Hub Adoption Officer).
Expanded team puts GGA and Hub at forefront of extension and adoption
Key new staff members are joining the GGA, significantly boosting its capacity to translate and extend innovative agricultural research and to maximise its adoption by growers.
A number of the appointments will strengthen the SW WA Hub, a major project led by the GGA with funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.
Caption: Discussing local drought resilience priorities during a meeting at Carnarvon are SW WA Hub staff and Mid West and Gascoyne Coastal Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) members.
Hub consulting on priority projects
Drought resilience priorities have been identified for the Wheatbelt, Mid West & Gascoyne Coastal and Southern Rangelands agro-ecological zones following situational analyses that have been groundtruthed with Regional Advisory Committees (RACs).
Regional Node Leads will seek feedback from local farmers on these proposed project focus areas soon.
Priority areas for projects for the South-West agro-ecological zone will be determined next month. Information about RACs and Regional Node Leads are on the Hub webpage.
Caption: Hub Director Mark Holland at the GRDC Grains Research Update event at Dongara.
Team out and about
The Hub team has been on the road addressing industry events including the Grains Research and Development Corporation Regional Grains Research Update series.
It has been great to update farmers and industry stakeholders about the activities of the Hub and proposed priorities that have been identified.
Coming GRDC updates are at Moora on 16 August and Wickepin on 18 August. Details here.
Hub Director Mark Holland will address the Wheatbelt NRM Talkin' Soil Health event on 11 August. Details here.
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.
Hub and GGA heading to Dowerin
If you are attending the Dowerin GWN7 Machinery Field Days on 24 to 25 August, drop in to chat with SW WA Hub and GGA team members located in the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) shed.
You can have your say on proposed SW WA Hub drought resilience priorities and talk with Climate Services for Agriculture representatives who will be accompanying the Hub team at their display site. For more information about the field days, click here.
Science to Practice recordings now live
If you missed out on the 2022 Future Drought Fund Science to Practice Forum in June, you can now catch up on the sessions from days one and two of this event.
The forum brought together farmers, researchers, government, industry and community members to explore innovative tools and practices helping our regions prepare for drought.
Caption: At the FDF Science to Practice event hosted by the SW WA Hub at Merredin are Hub Knowledge Broker Tanya Kilminster, DPIRD researcher Richard George and Hub Director Mark Holland.
Opportunity to shape climate tool
Growers have the opportunity to help shape the online drought tool Climate Services for Agriculture (CSA) when its developers visit WA from 22 to 24 August.
The SW WA Hub is working with its Regional Node Leads to facilitate informal meetings between producers and the CSA team.
Funded by the Future Drought Fund, CSA will help Australian producers and advisers plan for the impacts of future droughts and other climate risks. For more information about the visit, contact Hub Knowledge Broker Tanya Kilminster. The CSA tool can be accessed via the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry website.
Register for farm business program
Registrations for the Peel Farm Business Resilience Program courses are open to all agribusinesses, including those that participated in the former WA Drought Pilot and iterations (Plan, Prepare, Prosper).
The course runs for eight weeks and includes a pre-program business health check, four days of in-person workshops, professional one-to-one mentoring, and an independent assessment of your new or reinvigorated farm business plan.
This program is supported by DPIRD, through funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.
Drought resilience webinars
Did you know a webinar series has been produced looking at what it takes to make Australian rural communities more drought and climate resilient?
The Australian Rural Leadership Foundation (ARLF) has hosted these webinars which feature panels of producers, industry professionals and scientists.
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 has been 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.
