Strengthening Our Communities

In June 2007 Mallee Sustainable Farming in conjunction with Focus Consulting, a Mildura based firm experienced in supporting business, has been successful in obtaining a grant for $242,000 from the Australian Government, Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, to assist projects in drought affected areas.

The program will run to April 2008 during which time projects will be supported in twenty one communities in the areas involved in Mallee Sustainable Farming.

The aim of this project is to support members of the community to help alleviate the impact of the long term drought and assist farmers to manage drought recovery. This project is designed to build on local ingenuity/partnerships to tackle local opportunities and formulate positive local initiatives which will support the individual, the family and the wider farming community.

The resources are to be spent in the small communities located throughout the mallee and across the three states.

Project Objectives

• To perform partnerships to tackle local problems and formulate local initiatives
• To build skills amongst family members to help manage the negative impact of drought and drought recovery
• To increase access by farmers to support systems, services available, and encourage linkages
• To maintain confidence and self worth while confronting difficult times i.e. build our morale

This project is an extension of what we do help our community to cope with change, work together to find solutions, and to improve our capacity to be better farmers in coping with drought and being prepared to maximise opportunities as the drought breaks.

MSF is concerned with long term sustainability, which includes supporting the farming community as a whole, including social activity of the people and towns and services on which the health of the community depends. MSF therefore fully support and will continue to support families, promote resilience and, coping skills and change management skills of our members. MSF aims to help farmers survive the downturn and promote continuity so that improved farm practices and knowledge will not be lost. It is important that nine years of research which developed more productive sustainable farming systems continues to be adopted and extended across all farms.