Crop Insurance Gives Grace Under Fire

By Kevin Borg, Chairman, CANEGROWERS Mackay

It has been saddening to see the many bushfires hitting rural communities across Queensland in recent months.

Like any natural disaster, bushfires hit hard on farming businesses, sometimes undoing the work of generations.

It’s also saddening to hear of cane farmers losing part or all of their crop, and doubly so to hear that they have not had crop insurance. Growers invest a great deal in bringing a crop to harvest, in terms of soil health, fertilising, pest and weed management, possibly irrigation. There could be a loss of essential infrastructure. To lose it all and the profits that go with it is a huge loss to the grower’s livelihood.

CANEGROWERS membership comes with crop insurance coverage for accidental fire, transit and hail incidents on all cane areas under the membership. In the last financial year, we had six local agribusinesses make claims.

In 2022 CANEGROWERS included free crop insurance as a part of the CANEGROWERS levy, and this introduction was seen as a landmark benefit for members, covering for $35 per tonne and no excess. CANEGROWERS has used our strong membership base and experience in the insurance market to develop this competitive product and the premium is paid by the CANEGROWERS organisation.

We all know it is a tough insurance environment out there and being able to take advantage of a blanket coverage returns enormous benefit in both premium and claim processing for our members.

Farmers, like all North Queensland residents, have a hard time getting affordable coverage for their homes and businesses.

But crop insurance is a form of income protection, and whether you are a CANEGROWERS member or not, it’s something to really consider as an important part of your business planning. Farmers are, after all, small business people who happen to farm.

And as small businesspeople, you owe it to yourself to have developed a decent business plan that covers realistic risk assessments from everything to natural disasters to succession planning to fluctuations in sugar and farm inputs pricing. For CANEGROWERS members, there’s access to the Business Essentials program to assist with that, but there is plenty of assistance out there for rural producers, including services like the Rural Financial Counselling Service, which has a range of free services, and Government financial assistance programs like the Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority (QRIDA).

In farming, we get very caught up in the day-to-day of running our operation: planting, harvesting, getting our machinery running in prime order.

Making sure our risk areas are planned for and covered is an important part of making sure our agribusinesses survive and thrive.

CHRISTMAS CURFEW LOOMING

It is concerning to note that the likelihood of the Crush running into the Christmas Curfew period, from noon Christmas Eve to January 3. We remind Harvest Contractors of the importance of gaining clearance by obtaining a permit from NHVR to operate applicable heavy vehicles on public roads during this time by 1 December.

We also thank the community for their patience to expect harvest activity around Christmas to continue in some areas, and urge safe and cautious driving.

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Unplanned fires can take a deep toll on farming businesses. Pictures: MCL

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