Question

Reports from the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology have pointed out that climate change will increase the severity and the frequency of droughts in Australia. As a result, policy debate has intensified in this area. The following is a quote from an ABARES, Insights paper 2018, it refers to drought in the Australian context:

“Drought policy is complicated and there are inevitable trade-offs. While attention is focused on responding to the current situation, it is important to understand the wider context – and tensions – around drought policy and climate change. Most importantly, while supporting those in need is appropriate, there is a risk that some interventions intended to assist farmers during droughts can have negative consequences in the longer term”.

With reference to the ABARES quote, use your knowledge of the history of drought policy to discuss the trade-off between supporting farmers through drought and promoting long-term productivity in Australian agriculture.   

Answer 1

According to the history of drought policy, farmers were supported and provided relief when drought was considered as a natural disaster, however it led to farmers not preparing enough to fight for drought. Thus there was a tradeoff wherein farmers were unwilling to prepare for the drought and risk their output in order to avail insurance payout. This led to decline in long term productivity as farmers knew that they would be compensated upon if their crop failed. Thus there was a trade off wherein farmers were compensated and happy to be supported but government agencies had to bear a lumpsum burden when there was a drought which turned out to be frequent and costly with decline in long term productivity.

Because of this several measures were undertaken to dispel the previously poor measures taken. Thus in the earlier stage when farmers were supported, it led to less productivity and erratic farm input prices as farmers did not take any precautionary measures themselves. Because of this, self reliant measures were made prevalent to fight drought and thus farmers wouldn't have to completely rely on government measures as drought was expected to be a frequent phenomenon, thus the government support was undertaken by preparing farmers for drought conditions and by focusing on recovery and response, with emphasis on accountability and right actions required. Focus on risk management and supporting farmers to manage and prepare for climate change so that farming turns out to be viable and productive in the long run.