Crippling debt is growing by the day for drought-stricken South Australian farms with local councils pleading for state government intervention in the form of rate relief.
Despite recent rains, the past three years of poor rain have seen farmers continue to borrow to cover their overheads.
After 90 per cent of his crops failed last year, Appila farmer Andrew Zanker, in South Australia’s Mid North, said he was reliant on loans to pay bills.
“Everything that we pay [for bills] at the moment increases our debt month by month,” he said.
(ABC News: Jordan Hayne)
By the end of the year, Mr Zanker expects he will be overdrawn by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Councils seek rate relief
Dean Johnson, Kimba mayor and president of the Eyre Peninsula…