Critical Breaking Point?

Agricultural communities throughout Australia are experiencing multiple and growing pressures. The recent drought across large tracts of the country is ingrained among these. In recognition of the need for research into these serious issues, the Birchip Cropping Group (BCG) commissioned a project ‘Understanding the current impact of drought on farming families in the Wimmera Mallee’ investigating the effect of the drought on farming families in the Wimmera Southern Mallee region of western Victoria. Like many other agricultural regions, this area has been, and may still be, in the grips of the worst drought since records began.
The aim of the study is to gain a better understanding of the impact of drought and other pressures upon farming families. Based on in-depth interviews with farming families in the Wimmera Southern Mallee region of north-western Victoria, this research uses an unprecedented longitudinal approach to track the experiences of farming families during a time of severe drought and - it was expected and hoped - a period of drought recovery.
The research is in two phases. Part One interviewed sixty randomly selected farming families during severe drought in February 2007. Part Two involves two follow-up interviews at six monthly intervals (September 2007 and February 2008) with a subset of twenty of the sixty farming families interviewed in Part One. This group represents some of the younger and older families of the original sample, who were selected in order to allow us to further explore some of the particular challenges that farming families at these stages of life are facing.
The interim report for Part Two of the project reports on the interviews conducted in September 2007. By providing a snapshot of the situation in September 2007, it builds on the understanding we developed in Part One about the issues farming families are facing in a period of great uncertainty and diminished capacity. Like the first round of interviews, it explores immediate and longer-term pressures upon farming families and their decision making around the present and future.
This project was made possible by the input, honesty, co-operation and generosity of farm families across the region. It reflects the issues, emotions and challenges families have been dealing with. Support from the Tattersalls George Adams Foundation enabled Part One to succeed and gain unprecedented interest within the regional agricultural community. The Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, recognised the project was a snap-shot in time, and are supporting Part Two: further interviews and over a longer time period. The report produced in Part One of the project is now public (see the link below), and BCG is working with other organisations and individuals to develop strategies to improve our ability to cope in future droughts. Projects are being developed to address a number of issues and discussions are taking place with other relevant service providers in and external to the region, to work collaboratively on issues BCG is unable to address in isolation.
Overall, this research suggests that the impacts of drought on the Wimmera Southern Mallee region are multi-layered, widespread, significant, long-term and growing. As its ripples spread through the community, reinforcing other waves of change, its accumulative impact is growing at both individual and collective levels. The effect of the drought on farming families cannot be isolated either from pre-drought pressures or from community level processes or individual level decisions. The resultant complexity adds to the uncertainty that characterises the occurrence of drought, and which is one of the main psychological impacts of it. Psychological/social/emotional effects and financial effects are tightly coupled not only to the physical phenomenon that drought superficially seems to be, but to each other. These two levels and the attendant coping strategies point to two important areas in which assistance can be provided.
While for some individuals and communities the drought remains a simple albeit painful bump in the road, for a growing number of others it is becoming a major turning point, albeit one at which many seem currently stalled. Combined with the ongoing accumulation of drought effects, the “pause mode” that many farming families are in as they face a future that seems both predetermined and unknown, means that it is likely that the drought’s ultimate impacts are not yet apparent. It is therefore critical that this research is not interpreted as a summary of the effects of “the drought” on farming families in the Wimmera Southern Mallee region, either at one point in time or for the drought in general. What this research does provide are some vital insights into the experiences of a significant number of farming families in the region. It is now up to government, business and other organizations to maximise their sphere of influence and respond.
Click here to download Part One project report 'Critical Breaking Point?' Read the project media release 'The Impact of Highs and Lows'. For more information on the project go to the social research project page.