New DRINKS Program helps build drought resilience in South Australia
SA primary producers, advisers and industry representatives are invited to participate in a new drought tactics mapping program now available through the South Australian Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub (SA Drought Hub).
Developed by the Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub (Vic Hub) and Cam Nicholson, of SFS-Vic Hub SW Node and Nicon Rural Services, the Drought Resilience Information and Knowledge Sharing (or DRINKS) program is designed to help producers identify actions to take before, during, and after drought.
“Drought-resilient farming doesn’t happen by accident. It takes good planning, shared knowledge, and timely decisions,” said Mr Nicholson.
Through DRINKS, the SA Drought Hub seeks to capture experiences from farmers from different farming systems, in different seasons, and use that knowledge to build the capacity of all farmers and stakeholders.
“We are pleased to now be partnering with the SA Drought Hub to deliver the program in South Australia.
SA Drought Hub Knowledge Broker Tony Randall says the program will add value in SA, helping primary producers, consultants and Government agencies better map activities and decision making.
“We recently delivered our first DRINKS pilot workshops in the rangelands and Penola. The workshop introduced the Four Phase Drought Model which considers Good Times, Uncertain Periods, Drought, and Recovery as a planning tool to help map decisions and identify trigger points based on key indicators such as stock decisions, water, pasture growth, finances and even mental health.”
“Participants actively contributed to the mapping process and helped identify key activities which should be implemented in summer, autumn, winter and spring in good times, uncertain periods, drought and in recovery.”
The pilot was well received by producers and advisers, who contributed local insight and discussed how resilience actions vary across pastoral and rangeland systems.
“The aim is to develop enterprise-specific ‘base maps’ for key industries and regions in SA, that identify and describe the critical considerations farmers and advisers should focus on to build drought resilience,” said Mr Randall.
“It’s not just primary producers who benefit from this process. The insights gained will help drought response and recovery teams identify better actions, projects and delivery timing to support primary producers.”
“Over the coming months, four more DRINKS workshops will be held across key agricultural regions and we invite producers and advisers to participate,” he said.
Each workshop will develop a ‘base map’ of drought resilience actions for different industries including livestock, grains, horticulture, viticulture, and dairy. Each regionally relevant plan will be shared with participants and key stakeholders.
Industry or grower groups keen to trial the DRINKS program are encouraged to contact the SA Drought Hub via Tamara Zerk. Tamara.Zerk@sa.gov.au
Media contact:
Belinda Cay, SA Drought Hub
E: belinda@agcommunicators.com.au
M: 0423 295 576
To find out more about the DRINKS program Download the project case study here
