{"id":458438,"date":"2026-02-04T19:08:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T19:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/458438\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T19:08:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T19:08:26","slug":"drought-affected-sa-farmers-able-to-access-low-interest-loans-of-up-to-250000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/458438\/","title":{"rendered":"Drought-affected SA farmers able to access low-interest loans of up to $250,000"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Australian farmers under financial strain from years of drought will be able to access low-interest loans of up to $250,000 from the state government.<\/p>\n

The $200-million program will be made available to drought-affected farmers in some of SA’s worst-hit regions \u2014 the Murray Mallee, Riverland and Upper North.<\/p>\n

It follows months of calls from farmers and industry groups<\/a> for the government to offer no or low-interest loans to those whose finances have been significantly impacted in recent years by some of the worst drought conditions on record<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/p>\n

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas says the new loan program adds to drought support measures previously announced by the government. (ABC News: Sophie Holder)<\/p>\n

Premier Peter Malinauskas deemed the measure necessary due to an “unprecedented” situation.<\/p>\n

“This is not what state governments normally do,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If I’m honest about it, some of our treasury officials are worried about setting the precedent, but some of the conditions that some of the farmers are facing are unprecedented, which is why ultimately I made the judgement that this response was necessary.<\/p>\n

“We don’t want to see good farmers missing out on access to cashflow at critical times around seeding, that then potentially could set them up for years ahead.”<\/p>\n

The SA Drought Loan Scheme comes in addition to $97-million drought assistance measures previously announced by the state government.<\/p>\n

Farmers struggling with finances<\/p>\n

Emily Morgan, who farms in Jabuk in the Murray Mallee, says farmers have been asking for such a measure “for a very long time”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Emily Morgan, a farmer from Jabuk in SA’s Mallee, has advocated for low-interest loans. (Supplied: Emily Morgan)<\/p>\n

“We would have loved to have heard about this a year and a half ago, but look, it’s a really positive announcement,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We really struggled when the drought hit with inputs, really struggled to pay for hay, for fertiliser, for fuel \u2014 and the government’s package at the time didn’t really match what we actually needed, which was a low-interest loan.<\/p>\n

“We run legitimate businesses and when we face tough times we need the ability to be able to pause our interest and principal repayments so we can recover \u2014 and when we recover and [get] back in the swing of things, we’re able to repay.<\/p>\n

“We’re not asking for handouts or charity \u2014 we’re asking for the ability to continue to run our business.”<\/p>\n

Industry group Grain Producers SA (GPSA) proposed the loan scheme to the state government throughout the drought.<\/p>\n

Chief executive Brad Perry said it was essential drought-affected farmers got access to the loans quickly to ensure crops could be planted this year.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Farmers won’t have to start repaying the new loans for the first two years, in which time it’s hoped their situation will improve. (ABC News: Emily Doak)<\/p>\n

“They’ve done everything they can in their power, but if it doesn’t rain you can’t grow crop,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They’re really struggling and talking about only being able to put in a quarter or less of their crop this season.<\/p>\n

“What we want is for this loan to be able to help them get back on their feet, get through these seasons to when it does rain again, and they can get back to some normality, we keep these good farmers in the industry, and we don’t lose generations of farmers.”<\/p>\n

Under the program, grain and livestock producers will be able to borrow up to $250,000 under a 10-year loan, with a two-year grace period before repayments need to be made.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The drought forced many SA farmers to either destock or invest heavily in fodder to keep their livestock fed and healthy. (ABC Rural: Selina Green)<\/p>\n

The loans will have concessional interest rates for the first two years at 50 per cent of the Commonwealth 10-year bond rate, after which the rate will match the Commonwealth rate.<\/p>\n

Lower interest loans on offer<\/p>\n

Mr Malinauskas says this will be lower than the current interest rate offered by the federal government’s Regional Investment Corporation (RIC) loan scheme, which sits at 5.18 per cent.<\/p>\n

He said it had become clear the RIC’s loans were not “as generous as many people in the agricultural sector would like”.<\/p>\n

\"close<\/p>\n

Parts of SA recorded their driest conditions in 2024. (ABC Rural: Selina Green)<\/p>\n

“Industry has made pretty clear that the adjustments that were made following the review of the RIC loans by the federal government haven’t met their needs,” Mr Malinauskas said.<\/p>\n

“That’s what spurred us into action to say ‘listen, there are still a number of communities around the state still very adversely affected by the drought’.<\/p>\n

“Because the federal government’s program doesn’t work, we’re going to do our own.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Australian farmers under financial strain from years of drought will be able to access low-interest loans of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,4358,235906,25794,25975,235907,235904,235903,203209,235902,235908,235905],"class_list":["post-458438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-drought","tag-drought-loans-farmers","tag-feed","tag-hay","tag-how-much-can-i-borrow-on-low-interest-loans","tag-loans-for-farmers-south-australia","tag-low-interest-loans-for-farmers","tag-malinauskas","tag-primary-producers-sa","tag-sa-drought-loan-scheme","tag-south-australia-drought"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}