The bush collaborations looking to break ground with vital drought funding

The fund was set up to help farmers better prepare for the more frequent and severe droughts expected as the climate changes.

It invests $100 million each financial year in projects ranging from building more adaptable communities, to business initiatives for drought resilience projects.

FDF consultative committee chair Brent Finlay said the feedback they'd received from the community was both positive, and helpful.

"People told us 'don't you come down here from Canberra and tell us what we need'. We got that really loud and clear," he said.

"This place based approach for the fund is really good - it's about place and regional. This is where the money hits the ground.

FDF received feedback during the session there were aspects of the fund that were working well, but there need to be greater efforts to help people understand what the fund was doing.

Local Land Services senior projects and programs officer Nyssa Belron-Liddy echoed a sentiment heard around the room that greater efforts needed to be made to engage farmers in the projects that were already happening.

"I think a lot of good work has already been done ... especially the Drought Resilient Soils and Landscapes Grants Program and the adoption innovation hubs," she said.

"I'm a little bit biased because they're two of my projects, but I think they're very worthwhile.

"I'd like more time to work on and build on that, and a little more integration with the end land user."

While conversation centred around implementation and better marketing for programs, there were also calls for more research.

The fund does not currently contribute to drought resilience research.

Associate Head of Agronomy at CSU Jeff McCormick said he'd like to see that change.

He said he didn't want to see this result in more tools that people didn't use, but generating practical information.

"The question is how do we actually enable growers to make better decisions? It's about relationships, it's about regional, it's about people knowing people," he said.

"There's no tension between extension and research - both need to happen at the same time to enable growers to come and to take something."

This round of consultations on the FDF has been prompted in part by a Productivity Commission report into the scheme delivered in September.

It found that while the fund had a "solid foundation", early efforts had been hampered by the fast rollout.

The report recommended greater work across whole communities likely to be affected by drought, and greater integration of climate change resilience as part of its mandate.

Mr Finlay said the best works he was seeing out of the fund were truly collaborative efforts that communities and individual stakeholders pursued together.

"It's bringing stakeholders together that haven't worked together," he said.

"With that, we're seeing collaboration. What we're saying is if you've got an idea and want to go it alone, the fund's probably not for you. But if you want to collaborate with a whole heap of organisations ... you make it very hard for us not to fund you.

"If there are projects that can help build drought resilience, we're interested in those projects."