New disaster response success lies with the grower

Last week’s severe weather event in North and Central Queensland was the first event we had experienced since the process of disaster response and recovery had come into full effect.  

For all of us very familiar with the old process it is a bit of a challenge to trust the new one, however the new way has merit and deserves a red-hot crack at getting it right.  

For many years peak industry bodies such as Growcom have been on the ground and on the phone as soon as practicable after an event to speak with growers, collect information and feed this back to government in order to get the right assistance in the right place at the right time.  
 
From our point of view, we loved this system as we had the information straight from the ground, from the people we knew and had a relationship with. We held this information and used it to best design our own response and help other agencies design their own responses. It enabled us to check in with growers and build a knowledge base around horticulture. But as with all processes, there comes a time when things must be reviewed and improved upon. 

Due to the events of the last few years impacting much of the state, there was enough evidence across Queensland, that data collection was taking too long to collate, and this was affecting how quickly decisions (at government level) could be made, which then impacted how quickly support on the ground could be enacted.  

Given our most pressing commitment for our growers is to get them support as quickly as possible we were supportive of a system which reflected this commitment.  

The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries has the task of advocating to receive the support our industry needs and as such they have designed a process; an online survey which they feel will best be able to achieve this most efficiently and effectively. The success of this new process however, lies in growers entering this data themselves in real time. 

It will be an interesting test to see what data DAF has collected as it will then give us an indication as to how many growers are aware of this new process.  

Will this new system work? Only if growers get behind it. Is Growcom closely monitoring its impact and effectiveness? Absolutely! 

Primary producers can access the Disaster Impact Survey online here: https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/a65512900348401a812e57d743e4c104