Queensland farmers have recently experienced some much-needed rainfall after a nearly rainless September and October, which had the state on track for a record dry spring.
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Falls of up to 100 millimetres have been recorded from the NSW-Queensland border to central Queensland, with the same areas that were devastated by bushfires now seeing green growth.
At the same time other regions are now dealing with the aftermath of thunderstorms, or in the case of the Lockyer Valley, catastrophic hail that wreaked $50 million worth of damage to crops and infrastructure.
While landowners are being advised by Queensland Fire and Emergency Services to remain vigilant of the bushfire threat, this unexpected shift in the weather is a strong reminder for all farmers to revisit their risk management practices as the disaster season continues.
QFF has been working with project partners at the University of Southern Queensland, Willis Towers Watson and CelsiusPro on parametric insurance options for the agricultural sector to protect profitability and manage income volatility, supporting the resilience of farmers to weather risks.
Parametric insurance covers the probability of a predefined event occurring (e.g., hailstones of a certain size causing crop damage) and pays out pre-determined amounts, based on a series of event thresholds. No damage assessment is required, and the speed of the claim payment ensures that farm businesses have access to cashflow after extreme weather to aid their recovery.
QFF has been partnering with farmers, the insurance industry and American weather tech company Hailios to host and trial hail plates which help gather the real-world data to structure a parametric policy for hail. While widely used in the United States in the automotive industry, this trial is a Queensland first and possibly an Australian first for agriculture. In the recent Lockyer Valley freak hailstorm, one of the hail plates was hit and would have paid out between $120,000 and $180,000 if linked to a policy.
While in this case the farmer did not have parametric hail cover in place, the impact does reflect the real-world value of such insurance products and will serve as a case study as these policies are commercialised.
QFF's Farm Business Resilience Program is another option for producers to develop their strategic management capacity to prepare for and manage business and weather risks. You can access support to develop your Farm Business Resilience Plan at the QFF website, where you will also find the informative QFF Farm Business Hour webinar series.
The QFF Farm Business Hour covers a range of timely topics including what primary producers should do in the first 36 hours after a natural disaster event. At a minimum, producers should have the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries' Queensland DAF Agriculture Disaster Impact Survey bookmarked and ready to complete in the event of a disaster.
Finally, I am happy to share that eligible producers who were flood impacted in 2021-22 can now finally access up to $7500 via a rebate to offset the cost of eligible technical advice associated with developing a flood management plan endorsed by an Industry Recovery and Resilience Officer. This kind of support is vital to farmers who are recovering from a disaster, but we need to work together to get better at the timeliness of the delivery of support. Reach out to QFF's IRROs via our website to learn more. https://www.qff.org.au/projects/industry-recovery-and-resilience-officer/
