Vol. No. Vol. 2218No. 39 27
FREE PUBLICATION
A FREE PUBLICATION FROM YOUR LOCAL RADIO STATIONS 3WM AND MIXXFM
Wednesday, January 2016 Wednesday, April13, 8, 2020
STAYING ACTIVE: Melissa Shaw and her sons Rupert, 5, and Henry, 2, of Haven, south of Horsham, use isolation time at home to go for a ride on their pony. People across the region are coming up with a vast array of ideas to stay occupied, fit and healthy while adhering to social-distancing guidelines. Picture: PAUL CARRACHER
‘Pillar of strength’ A
BY DEAN LAWSON
powerful agricultural sector looms as a major platform for rebuilding socio-economic health and wellbeing in the region when the COVID-19 threat has passed. Wimmera Development Association has pointed to the sector as a pillar of strength amid crippling economic circumstances and representative of a ‘light at the end of the tunnel’. Association executive director Chris Sounness said many aspects of agriculture across the Wimmera and southern Mallee, while not all, had been relatively immune to the many
flow-on effects hitting other sectors. “Many farmers are still carrying on with their traditional activities and are coming off a good year. If this season proves promising it will lessen the overall impact of the virus and provide invaluable help to the regional economy,” he said. “Mind you, that’s a hard perception to pass onto a small-business owner down the street who is in a lot of pain at the moment. Pointing out future opportunities is great but it doesn’t stand up if your business is getting hammered. “Yet one of the major positives in living in an agricultural region is that the world will continue to need food
and we grow it here and export it around the world. And that’s why it represents an important anchor for us moving forward. “What agriculture might do is simply provide that foundation and opportunity to rebuild when the time is right. In other words – maintain the scaffolding for a revitalisation that leads our region through a recovery process. “And knowing our communities might have a chance to build around that provides us with some optimism at a time where everything appears very bleak.” Mr Sounness said many opportunities for the region to be able to recover
on the back of agriculture were dependent on timing. “At the moment, after a productive year, prices have also been good and that helps underpin an important part of the financial backdrop of the Wimmera-Mallee,” he said. “And the start of the operation of the new Rainbow Radar, which will help with real-time decision-making, couldn’t have come at a better time to help with farming activities and ultimately the role agriculture will play in the revitalisation. “We’ve also only scratched the surface in innovation value-adding for agricultural products that suddenly appear perhaps more important
than ever from a global perspective.” Victoria is Australia’s leading producer and exporter of agriculture and food products, generating more than $14-billion of food and fibre exports in 2018-19, 26 percent of the national total. The Federal Government is working to consolidate Australia’s agricultural and fisheries sectors by securing dedicated freight flights for export. The $110,000 national International Freight Assistance Mechanism will allow key routes to continue for exports until commercial capacity returns. Continued page 3
IN THIS ISSUE • Oscar Group offers support • Police Easter warning • Football-netball countdown Phone: 03 5382 1351 Read it online: www.theweeklyadvertiser.com.au
AUDITED: 22,395 COPIES
April 2019 to September 2019
Source: AMAA; CAB Total Distribution Audit for further information visit www.auditedmedia.org.au
3 BLOCK LOAVES
ONLY
Free home delivery in Horsham for senior card holders, phone 5382 6124
10
$ •
•
•
•
•
KMART BEST AND LESS SPOTLIGHT REJECT SHOP WIDE RANGE OF SPECIALTY STORES WWW.HORSHAMPLAZA.COM.AU