FOUR regions have been chosen to help design digital climate services, which are aimed at boosting drought resilience.
The government has selected a broad range of climatic regions with a focus on key commodities; the Queensland dry tropics, Condamine and Northern Tablelands, Victorian Mallee and south-east South Australia and the Western Australian sheep-wheat belt.
Agriculture and Drought Minister David Littleproud said the government wanted to tap into the local climate knowledge of farmers and bounce ideas off them to ensure the tools developed were fit for purpose.
"Feedback gathered in these regions will inform the design of the Drought Resilience Self-Assessment Tool and the Climate Services for Agriculture digital platform, to make sure both are useful to the agricultural sector," Mr Littleproud said.
"The two initiatives will tailor climate risk, impact and resilience information to specific agricultural sectors in pilot regions, enabling farmers to prepare for future drought and climatic conditions.
"Farmers are key to the design and development of these important resources that will ultimately support their resilience, risk planning and profitability through future drought."
The pilot program will be funded by the $5 billion Future Drought Fund, which will roll out $100 million to drought resilience projects every year.
Farmers who live outside the pilot regions can contribute their input by visiting the Future Drought Fund website.
The prototype products will be available nationally by the end of June, with further development occurring to customise information to the needs of users in pilot regions, up until June 2022.