Help, to be self-reliant in upper catchment

Published in Wangaratta Chronicle 4.8.08 ... archived 4.8.08

VFF chief speaks on EC rollover, more water, bigger dams and farming into future

Written by JEFF ZEUSCHNER.

NORTH East’s upper catchment landholders should be given a share of water savings from the State Government’s billion dollar irrigation upgrade in the Goulburn Valley.

And the State Government should pursue enlargement of either Lake William Hovell or Lake Buffalo, believes the head of Victoria’s peak farming body, Simon Ramsay.

Visiting Wangaratta recently, the Victorian Farmers Federation president said the state should be looking at extension of the local water storages to harvest more water where it falls in the catchment.

Mr Ramsay also said the VFF was lobbying the state to put aside 20,000 megalitres for upper catchment landholders, from the expected 225 gigalitres to be saved annually from the Goulburn Valley irrigation upgrade.

"How we provide it and to whom is yet to be determined," he said.

Mr Ramsay said continuation of Exceptional Circumstance support beyond September 30 remained a big issue, and he was optimistic it would be rolled over for another year.

"Few have recovered, and with the zero (water) allocation in the Murray and Goulburn systems, we’re pretty confident that EC will be rolled over," he said.

But Mr Ramsay said governments want to ensure support helps farmers become more self reliant, equipping them with skills and resources to plan and be prepared.

He said the State Government had allocated $205 million of new money to the ‘Future Farming’ initiative, with the challenges of water, climate change, carbon offsets and upskilling featuring prominently.

Mr Ramsay, who is one of the members on the panel working with the minister, said the drive is really about risk management and pre-drought preparedness.

"It’s about giving farmers the tools to manage the risk, on the basis you’ll become more self reliant," he said.

"The concept is good..it’s what farming needs to prepare for to be more self reliant."