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Workshop Paves the Way for Future Planning

25 Jul 2008

The attendance of 25 farmers and community members at a business planning and evaluation workshop in Pyramid Hill last week was a pleasing result for organisers of the event.

Jarrod Coote, the workshop facilitator from BRIT, said that the turnout was better than expected and there was a healthy discussion on key issues confronting local farmers, particularly on climatic change, decreased rainfall and reduced irrigation allocation.

"It is important for the community to understand that there are a number of changes around the corner for farmers in this region. The same issues are facing the wider community."

The workshop was part of the State Government funded Accelerating Reconfiguration in the Pyramid-Boort Irrigation Area: Pilot Project and was organised jointly by North Central Catchment Management Authority (CMA), Department of Primary Industries (DPI) and BRIT Bendigo.

The group was particularly interested in the DPI presentation on climate change which went a long way towards simplifying the science involved.

Jeroen Van Veen, a BRIT student involved with the Wedderburn Conservation Network, discussed carbon trading initiatives being established around Wedderburn, including the setting up of offset programmes utilising native vegetation.

Jarrod Coote said that there was good involvement from attendees in the session about the development of action plans to assist in strategic decisions for the future.

"They had the opportunity to sit and think about what had been presented during the day to help in future planning for their farm operations, adjusting to the changes in store," said Jarrod. "We need farmers to consider both the challenges and opportunities presented by the current situation."

Participants were asked to consider potential steps and actions they could undertake to develop their own enterprise business plan. Individual support and advice was provided by the organisers to help attendees in doing this. 

Further study in this area would be extremely useful and Jarrod recommends the business planning units which form part of the Diploma of Sustainable Agriculture at BRIT. 

Presentations were made by DPI staff on the range of incentives and grants for landholders in the Loddon Campaspe Irrigation Region, and Centrelink advised the group on the grants and services for farmers.


For further information please contact: 

Communications Officer, North Central CMA
PO Box 18, Huntly VIC 3551
t: 03 5448 7124
e: info@nccma.vic.gov.au

 

 

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