According to the Bureau of Meteorology, farmers should brace for a hotter and drier-than-usual spring, with drought conditions set to intensify across Australia.
Beaurau of Meteorology predicts an early onset of summer with an increased risk of heatwaves in southern and south-eastern areas and of bushfires.
"It may be we're getting into late spring or even summer before we start to see some better rains in those areas," Dr Andrew Watkins
The bureaau says that chances of rain are slim for the country especially in areas like Western Australia, most of South Australia, southern parts of the Northern Territory, inland NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, and north Queensland. Australia also faced a drier-than-usual winter this year.
Cooler-than-average sea temperatures in waters off Australia's northwest coast are acting to suppress rainfall over southern and central Australia, the bureau says.
There is also double the risk of an El Nino forming in the coming months.
As a result of the drought, farmers will have to be ready to wait out wilted crops further. Crop losses would also mean forceful slaughter of livestock as there will be lack of food to sustain them.
Not able to procure enough grain from the east coast, some food manufacturers have started to import supplies from Western Australia, where recent favorable weather encouraged farmers to sell surplus harvest. Crop excess have been reported at 10 million tonnes in Western Australia, but if the forecast materialises, the figure will be under threat.
Production of wheat from the world’s fourth-largest exporter is already expected to hit a decade low this year.