The Australian Government last Wednesday announced a $20 million Managing Farm Risk Program.
The program aims to support farmers by encouraging the development of the insurance market in Australian agriculture. The objective is to “improve the capabilities of farmers to manage drought and other production market risks” and “provide a short term boost to the multi-peril insurance market in Australia”.
The potential rebate of $2500 for a farm entity will help cover costs incurred in securing, or attempting to secure an agricultural insurance product.
Queensland Farmers’ Federation (QFF) is happy to see money finally being put on the table to allow farmers to investigate options.
This is the first step to the development of a viable multi-peril agricultural insurance market.
Insurers’ interest in multi-peril insurance continues to grow with many new companies (backed by large multinationals) starting to enter the market. This means more options are becoming available and farmers are encouraged to research the market and seek advice.
QFF has met with a number of insurance industry groups and there is a lot of interest in expanding outside of the winter cropping standard.
We know that the insurance industry is looking to develop products suited for the intensive agriculture industries in Queensland, but insurers aren’t willing to go through the costly process to develop new products without a market guarantee.
This type of market ‘stand-off’ could be circumvented if a few dollars were spent on detailed data assessments of the intensive agriculture risks, and to educate the market on viable risk management strategies as part of business planning.
QFF sees this as an important area where government funding could assist in securing a beneficial outcome for the intensive agriculture industries in Queensland.
QFF and its industry members understand that more work needs to be done. In the meantime, we encourage individual farmers to take a good look at what is on offer through this new Managing Farm Risk Program.
– Stuart Armitage, QFF president
