Farming

Chris Oldfield. As the stubble burning season fires up, the region’s grape growers hope their red grape harvest is not affected by smoke taint. Each year, traditional grain growers burn their stubbles before working their soil for next year’s crop in a bid to control weeds, pests and fungal spores. Meanwhile, a cooler grape growing season means a harvest that could clash with stubble burning.

Growing Abundance helps minimise food waste in our community by organising volunteers to help pick the fruit that isn’t able to be harvested by the owners. We are doing a call out for anyone who has excess fruit on their trees that they are willing and wishing to get help harvesting and distributing.

Gabrielle Duykers. Food and beverage producers from across the region will be meeting to discuss the impacts of drought and climate change to help bolster their preparedness for such events. The Limestone Coast Food and Agribusiness Cluster, established in December 2021, will run a series of webinars and networking events to help foster a better understanding of the risks posed by drought and varying climates.

"The latest government announcement about primary producers being able to claim their carbon credit profits as part of their primary production income looks positive indeed. What is important to understand however is that this development, whilst positive, is only benefiting those primary producers that have already started a carbon farming project and are soon ready to sell. What this development doesn't doesn't do is incentivise farmers to take up a carbon project in the first place; the key issue we need to overcome to meet our netzero2050 targets. What we need most now are governmental incentives that mitigate the financial barriers of entry for farmers and enable them to get started fast": Phil Mulvey.