A one-day forum on farm risk lands in Orange on September 22, as drought conditions are forecast to continue across much of the Central West.

The National Insurance Brokers Association will hold a one-day forum on agricultural and rural risk in Orange, New South Wales, on September 22, organised by NIBA's NSW/ACT Committee and bringing brokers, underwriters, claims professionals and industry partners together in the Central West city. Sessions will cover farm technology, market dynamics and the broker's changing role in agricultural risk, with an industry expo and networking running alongside the program.

The timing is not arbitrary. The NSW Government's Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development's most recent seasonal drought forecast shows conditions are likely to continue across large parts of the Central West through the end of September, with much of the area expected to remain in a drought-affected category. A forum on agricultural risk in a region currently under active drought advisory is a different proposition from a metropolitan event covering the same ground at a remove.

Part of a deliberate regional strategy

NIBA president Nick Cook framed the Orange event as one step in a longer-running effort to build the association's presence outside metropolitan areas. "NIBA has built a strong focus on regional areas over the past year, and this Forum is part of that continued effort," Cook said, noting that sub-committees formed over the past year in the Northern Territory, Tasmania and the ACT have given regional members "a real voice within NIBA."

Caleb Richards, NIBA's 2025 Broker of the Year, connected the event directly to conditions on the ground. "Farming operations are scaling up and adopting new technology faster than ever, and the risk on farm is evolving right alongside it," Richards said. "Brokers need direct access to that expertise, on the ground where clients are, not from a distance."

That observation is backed by the product landscape. Allianz Australia launched its redesigned Farm Pack Insurance on July 20, specifically citing the need to catch up with farm technology that had outpaced existing policy wordings. Among the concrete changes: drone liability cover extended from a two-kilogram to a 25-kilogram weight threshold, reflecting the shift from small consumer drones to commercial units now used for crop spraying, mustering and monitoring. Autonomous and semi-autonomous equipment exposures - including electric farm vehicles now operating on properties - required new wording to address who is "in the loop" during operation and whether standard cover applies when a vehicle acts without continuous human input. The PDS itself was cut from 10 sections to five after broker feedback identified placement friction as a significant barrier, particularly on hobby-farm and smaller agricultural accounts where time cost outweighs commission.

Those changes were driven in part by ABARES data showing that the agricultural workforce employed around 255,500 people in 2025 - under 2% of the national workforce - while the land under management continues to expand, accelerating the shift toward autonomous and drone-based operations across properties that smaller teams cannot practically manage with traditional equipment.

The risk backdrop

The Orange event builds on NIBA's Farming the Future brokers' guide, published in March and produced in partnership with Allianz, along with an accompanying webinar. NIBA CEO Richard Klipin said the forum extends that work into a format where brokers can put it into practice. "Farming is foundational to this country, and the brokers who support agricultural clients carry real responsibility for helping them navigate an increasingly complex risk environment," Klipin said. "This Forum gives them the room to put it into practice, to ask questions, to hear directly from experts and from each other."

For brokers servicing agricultural clients in the Central West and broader regional NSW, the combination of active drought conditions, evolving farm technology and a redesigned product landscape means the risk conversation at renewal is more complicated than it was even 18 months ago. Drought affects not only crop and livestock exposure but the risk profile of farm machinery operating in dry, hard-baked conditions - higher fire risk from harvesting equipment, reduced water availability for suppression, and increased likelihood of equipment failure under extended operational stress. Those are coverage questions that benefit from direct expert access, which is precisely what the Orange forum is designed to provide.

Source - https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com