Facilitating Irrigator Recovery Program
All flood affected irrigators will be able to access individual support from the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) in a $4.96 million irrigator recovery program.
The Program is part of the $21 million assistance package for flood affected irrigators announced by Minister for Water Peter Walsh in April 2011.
It is designed to help the region recover and ensure it is in a stronger position to reduce the impacts of future flooding.
The other key components to the assistance package are:
- Voluntary land buyback and incentives - $12.3 million
Lower Loddon farmers have the opportunity to consider changing their operation to something more tolerant to flooding or to sell their property and move to a less flood prone area. - Levees and groundwater bores - $3.5 million
Strategic repair of levees and groundwater bores in the Lower Loddon area.
About the program
The Facilitating Irrigators Recovery Program is open to all flood affected irrigators in Goulburn-Murray Water’s (GMW) Loddon, Campaspe and Central Murray Operations Areas (refer to map). It provides for:
- DPI staff to work face to face with individual irrigators to help flood recovery planning for the short and long-term future of their farm business. They will work to help irrigators understand and access the existing programs offering financial and technical support.
- The full cost recovery on irrigation whole farm plans to re-establish irrigation design and layout for flood-affected properties
- The full cost recovery on soil salinity surveys to help farmers make sound decisions on where they will get best return from investing in flood recovery activities
- Grants up to $2000 to flood-affected irrigators for independent professional advice to help them make decisions about their farms and business to recover from the floods.
Who is delivering the package?
The Minister for Water established the Lower Loddon Irrigators Recovery Taskforce to guide implementation of the package. The Taskforce is a joint local and state government group chaired by a representative from DPI.
How long will the recovery programs be available?
The flood recovery package will be available until June 2012.
DPI case management and independent advice
The objective of the Facilitating Irrigators Recovery Program is to help farmers plan for the future and make changes to their businesses.
This can involve grasping new opportunities to change the scale or scope of the farm business. Some of the changes required may be challenging and involve some difficult decisions.
The range of decisions landholders may need to consider include:
- Key questions about the farmer’s business and lifestyle aspirations, including scale of enterprise, enterprise changes, land suitability, succession planning
- Sell all or some of the property, or accept compensation for covenanting land on the active floodplain. This is specific to Lower Loddon farmers
- Sell or buy temporary or permanent water entitlement, on the market or through the Commonwealth Buyback, subject to the 4% trade rule
- Surrender all or some of Delivery Share, and surrender the Water Use Licence or some of the associated Annual Use Limit
- Connect the property to the modernised irrigation supply system, or relocate the farm business to land on the modernised irrigation supply system
- Rebuild or upgrade irrigation systems, including Whole Farm Plans, Soil Salinity Surveys, participation in the Farm Water Program (On-Farm Irrigation Efficiency Program)
- Transition property to a dryland enterprise
Eligibility criteria
This program is open to all flood affected irrigators in the G-MW’s Loddon, Campaspe and Central Murray Operations Areas. Participation is optional.
The flood footprint will be based on the mapped extent of the January 2011 flood.
If there is any doubt, eligibility will be at the discretion of the DPI officer, who may request evidence of inundation or flood damage.
The level of uptake will be monitored and if specific components of the program are likely to become oversubscribed, applicants will be prioritised along the following lines:
- the degree of inundation based on physical evidence
- the level of damage to the property based on physical evidence
- the opportunity to leverage benefits from complementary government programs to achieve Land and Water Management Plan objectives such as floodplain restoration, protection of high value environmental assets, farm water-use efficiency, and modernisation of irrigation supply.
What other assistance is available to irrigators?
This package comes on top of other flood recovery initiatives for irrigators in the Goulburn-Murray Irrigation District, which have been developed since the floods of January and February 2011.
Assistance already available includes:
- $6 million for flood employment statewide ($2.5 million in the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District) to address immediate and short term needs of landholders and create immediate cash flow
- Up to $40 million from existing regional programs, such as the North Central Catchment Management Authroity Programs or Northern Victoria Irrigation Renewal Project Connections Program, to redevelop private properties that have been severely flood affected.
- Commonwealth Government Category D Arrangements. The Commonwealth Government had agreed to a cost-sharing arrangement for support under Category D of the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA).
- It involves a low-interest concessional loan and grant package of up to $650,000 over 10 years with a concessional interest rate of four per cent for the first five years, the first two years interest and repayment free, and up to $50,000 provided as a grant.
Map showing areas to be targeted for the Facilitating Irrigator Recovery Program - Click for a larger view.
How do I find out more?
Visit www.dpi.vic.gov.au or call the DPI Customer Service Centre on 136 186 for further information.
Landholders interested in the Facilitating Irrigator Recovery Program can also contact Department of Primary Industries Offices at Echuca on 5482 1922 or Kerang on 5452 1266.
