Following the recent drought and bushfires in Australia, the farming sector's woes have increased manifold. From unfriendly climatic conditions, to poor yield and low profits, farmers in states like South Australia, Queensland and Victoria have borne the brunt of a rough season.
A leading member of Victoria's Punjabi community, Charanamat Singh, is also a well-known farmer. Recently, he gave a presentation to Daniel Andrews, the Premier of Victoria, regarding the distress farmers are faced with, and how they'd like to be helped by the government.
"I suggested to Premier Andrews that farmers should be given subsidy for building small dams on their farms so that we can harvest rain water and use it during the dry months. It can also be used to douse bushfires. I also suggested they fund small processing plants so that wastage of produce is minimised. Then, he was made aware that the price difference in the produce from farm to fork is unreasonable. All these reasons collectively pose economic challenges before us farmers, due to which were unable to get loans from banks for our next crop. I requested him to take measures to help us overcome these problems," Mr Singh told SBS Punjabi.
Mr Singh's farmland suffered the Black Saturday fires 10 years ago, which led him to think up ways to pre-empt losses that such natural calamities can bring to Victoria's farming community.
