Primary producers in Queensland's biggest citrus-growing region say drought and rising salinity is making their recovery from devastating floods last year even harder.

More than 200 producers in the Wide Bay-Burnett region received disaster relief assistance after the 2013 floods. But hundreds more were affected, and many now are struggling with both dry conditions, and increased salinity in their groundwater.

Gayndah grower Ken Roth said he lost hectares of trees in the floods.

The dry conditions means growers must irrigate more, but doing it with salty water causes problems for both new and established trees.

Mr Roth said a lot of trees had no leaves.

"Very de-foliaged on the bottom of the trees through the salt, but long-term it can make deadwood come through the whole tree, and that really knocks your quality of fruit around [because] the deadwood scratches the little fruit and makes it unsaleable," he said.

Government to hold workshops for farmers

The Queensland Government increased its salinity monitoring in response to farmers' concerns.

Department of Natural Resources and Mines land services manager Paul Harris said department records showed electrical conductivity readings - the measure of salinity - had increased after previous floods.

"The salt's come from two main sources," Mr Harris said. "When you get the big flood events associated with the cyclones like we did in the Burnett you get a flushing through the landscape. It's coming from the shallow soils and also through the landscape itself, but you also get a secondary effect - a recharge of the groundwater systems."

Mr Harris said the State Government would hold workshops for affected farmers to try to help them manage the problem and reduce long-term damage to soils.

"This is something that's happened before," he said. "We do have to manage it carefully to make sure there are no long-term effects on the farms and on our production systems, but we should take heart because it may trend down in a year, maybe two years' time, depending on weather conditions and surface water flows."

Local industries battle tough times

With the harvest in the North Burnett just finishing, the region's fruit processing cooperative, Gayndah Packers, noticed some growers harvesting good fruit and receiving good prices.

But cooperative manager Barry Scott said others struggled with the after-effects of the flood.

"We've had two floods, a mini-drought, we're on the verge of another drought. The salinity is the result of the floods, you've had frosts, you've had hail," he said. "It's tough for the grower, tough for the industry at the moment, but generally it cycles through and we just have to keep going until the good cycle comes around."

North Burnett Deputy Mayor Faye Whelan said that was contributing to a regional downturn in business turnover and confidence.

"The town's obviously had some tough times," Councillor Whelan said. "I think two floods in a row is a very big thing to counteract, such a big impact takes time."

But she was yet to notice anyone leaving.

"I'd be very surprised if any of these growers actually threw the towel in, because I think they're stayers and they'll fight till the end," Ms Whelan said. "I'd say they'll go out yelling and screaming if they have to, but they'll be there to the end, so I'm very proud of them."

Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/