A strategy to help drought-ravaged farmers survive and thrive will be put to both sides of federal politics in a bid to save the country's agriculture industry and improve the environment.
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A group of experts from Australia and across the globe - under the Regenerative Agriculture Alliance, have created a list of policy recommendations and actions they want the next federal government to embrace.
The alliance wants at least $5 million - but ideally $20 million, to conduct free education programs to teach farmers how to transition to regenerative agriculture practices.
That revolves around putting carbon in the soil to increase the water storage capacity; for example three average-size swimming pools of water can be held in one hectare of soil.
It also wants the government to pay 50 per cent of the cost of putting the practices to work, include environmental factors like carbon levels in the list of lenders criteria when financing farms, form a Regenerative Agriculture Advisory Group, and create a Centre of Excellence in Regenerative Agriculture around the alliance.
Read more: the key to surviving drought
The alliance is ready to roll-out the help, it just needs the money to make it possible. It is led by Southern Cross University, utilises its scientific and research capacities and builds on the national Farming Together program.
Alliance director, and farmer, Lorraine Gordon said the strategy will be given to Agriculture Minister David Littleproud and shadow minister for agriculture Joel Fitzgibbon.
She said the government could not keep dishing out loans and expecting that was enough, especially when the situation beyond the Great Dividing Range was "utter chaos" and some farming families wouldn't survive.
"We've got the capacity, the network and the will, we just need enough funding to make the training free for farmers," Ms Gordon said.
There are a lot of people that are purely in survival mode once you go over the Great Dividing Range and they are looking down the barrel of a really tough winter.
Read more: Time to #heartyourfarmer
"There is no time to lose, we have to be doing stuff now. There has been a lot of damage done and a lot of farming families that may not recover from this."
Ms Gordon said providing incentives - and helping to ease the financial burden of adapting, were vital.
"They have already paid enough of a price to get to where they are now, so we would like the programs to be free. It's not just about getting rain, there are a lot of issues contributing to this; there is a lot of man-made decisions that have led to this and it will be a massive transition for the farmers.
"The government paying 50 per cent takes away some of the risk for the farmers."
Belinda-Jane Davis
Passionate about community news
Passionate about community news
