Severe drought in NSW and Queensland renders farmers homeless and jobless

Financial counsellors have warned that as New South Wales and Queensland enter into its fourth year of drought, more farmers are likely to be homeless and jobless.

Karen Tully, the south-west Queensland chair of the Department of Agriculture-funded Rural Financial Counselling Service, said the most difficult challenge her office has faced is to support farmers who are battling drought to pay off the debts that have accrued to them.

"The biggest need by hours -- so the hours that our financial counsellors are putting in the most work with -- is debt mediation," the ABC quoted her as saying. "This is where people have squeezed profitability circumstances, which at the moment is predominantly drought, and they are having to prepare for conversations with the banks."

Drought, that led to mounting debts on most of the farmers, has forced many to leave their lands. Once evicted from their own lands, they are no longer farmers on the paper, which makes it even more difficult for them to claim drought support fund. According to Tully, roadblocks between farmers and banks are yet to peak.

"Once the drought is over, I believe financiers will honour the contract that they have signed with the primary producer and that may see increased people having to make decisions," she said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture told the ABC that the federal government has provisions to help farmers going through tough times with counselling, information and support. But according to the farmers, the support is not enough and most of the times leaves them to decide for themselves.

In June, a small amount of rain raised hopes amongst the farmers of NSW, prompting them to sow their lands in anticipation of harvesting crops in three years. But according to a report released on Oct. 7 by the Bureau of Meteorology on September rainfall, below average rainfall has been recorded in most of NSW, Victoria and Tasmania. The very dry month have caused the deficiencies to increase substantially in different parts of Australia, most notably in south-west Western Australia, eastern Australia and south-east South Australia.

Contact the writer at feedback@ibtimes.com.au, or let us know what you think below.