QFF has been involved in the management of severe natural disasters including Cyclones Larry (2006) and Yasi (2011), the 2011 Queensland floods, flooding associated with Cyclone Oswald (2013), Cyclone Marcia (2015) and long term drought.
Our role in these events has been to manage the industry recovery programme, ensuring landholders can access the information, advice and support needed to recover.
QFF is a leader in the agricultural industry recovery from natural disasters.
Tropical Cyclone Marcia a Category 5 severe cyclone that made landfall over central Queensland in February 2015. The event spawned the state funded and QFF led industry recover project.
The cyclone impacted dairy, grazing and cropping, horticulture and the production nursery industries around Yeppoon , Byfield (north of Rockhampton) where there was widespread damage to farms, and associated flooding to the south in around Biloela and Monto.
As project leader QFF is delivering industry specific assistance through industry bodies:
Each of these industry groups have been subcontracted to delivery industry specific outcomes.
Resilience in agriculture is the ability to recover and attain full business functionality after a disruption.
Building resilience is about changing industry attitudes toward risk and development capacity to adapt to change. These projects aim to reduce the physical and financial impacts of natural disasters on your farm business with the goal to restore the property to its pre-disaster capability as quickly as possible.
QFF has recently completed delivering the Disaster Resilience Planning for Agriculture in Queensland (DRPAQ) project funded by the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.
The work completed in this project has fed in to the national project, Disaster Resilience Planning for Australian Agriculture, funded out of the National Emergency Management Project (NEMP).
A copy of the DRPAQ report can be viewed and downloaded HERE.
The NEMP project includes:
The NEMP project is ongoing.
QFF is looking to continue working in disaster resilience planning and ensure that Queensland farmers are well positioned for any natural disaster.
Through extensive natural disaster recovery and natural disaster resilience work experience, QFF identified a gap in the risk management tools available to land holders.
Agricultural industry-specific insurance is an exciting prospect for our sector in its ongoing journey in managing risk. QFF is at the forefront of this exciting new industry and is working with industry members and the insurance industry to develop appropriate products.
Currently, crop insurance is not available for many agricultural commodities. Through this work, appropriate insurance products will be brought to market faster giving farmers additional risk management tools.
Natural disaster support is available on a purpose-built QFF website: farmerdisasertsupport.org.au. The site has a simple postcode and industry search function that provides a one stop shop of all industry specific, local, state, federal and not-for-profit assistance available in your local area.
The service is designed for farmers from all industries and is designed to save them time and frustration in the aftermath of an event. This site has been built by industry for industry to get you back on your feet and better prepared for the next event.
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