Jo Cameron knows it has been a tough few years for the region’s farmers.
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The new CEO of Culivate Agribusiness has been in the job for over a month now and said she sees farmers and local governments taking a collective regional focus on producing as an effort to recover.
“The councils all do a great job working with agriculture and the agribusiness sector, but for bigger picture projects or investment opportunities that regional focus is going to become more important in the future,” she said.
But she said she was clear on the difficulties in making a living on the land in the region.
“Funding can quite often be challenging, and obviously the environment, seasonal effects and weather,” she said.
“The last two years have been pretty challenging as far as weather and lack of rain, and that has an ongoing effect, not just for the farmers, but throughout the whole market chain.”
Ms Cameron has come straight from the private sector, moving to Ballarat from Minyip, north of Horsham, where she was general manager of grain export company Wimpak.
It is her first foray into a not-for-profit organisation although but she carries a sharp eye for standards, working for the RSCPA as an inspector after university then going to the then-Department of Primary Industries in the animal health section.
Cultivate has worked hard over the last year on improving its standing in the agricultural sector in the region.
Events that have come as part of this effort include the Ag Conversations series.
While the first few looked at themes like the next generation of farmers the organisation has most recently responded to the desperate situation in which many farmers find themselves.
Cultivate chairman Andrew Young said the Avoca drought forum in March was there to give immediate advice.
“A number of farming families across the Pyrenees Shire and indeed western Victoria are facing financial situations they’ve never faced before and some simply can’t see a positive way forward,” he said.