VICTORIAN farmers will receive a 100 per cent rebate on the cost of buying chemicals to control locusts this spring.
The rebate is part of a $43.5 million package the Government has committed to fight what it says could be the worst locust plague in 75 years.
Premier John Brumby unveiled the Government's locust strategy last week and said he would chair a new taskforce to implement the plan.
Mr Brumby said the forecast spring locust plague had the potential to cut Victorian agricultural production by $2 billion.
"The advice of leading scientists indicates the scale of the coming spring's outbreak could be as bad as we experienced in 1973 and 1974 when locusts swarmed through much of Victoria," he said.
"Prior to that, the last outbreak of this scale was in 1934, so we could be facing a once-in-a-lifetime locust plague."
Under the strategy, the Government will set up three incident control centres in northern Victoria and a separate call centre.
It will also lease fixed-wing planes and helicopters to aerial spray and fund an advertising campaign and public meetings.
Mr Brumby also said 400 staff would work with affected communities, "visiting landowners, managing roadblocks during aerial sprayings and reporting all locust activity".
Victorian Farmers Federation president Andrew Broad said the package was a "really good outcome".
"We probably couldn't have asked for a better response," Mr Broad said.
"If we finish up with locust problems in spring we couldn't blame the State Government for inaction on this."
Mr Broad said the rebate would provide substantial help to farmers who would have to pay about $5 a hectare to buy chemicals and about $8 a hectare if they needed a contractor to apply them.
Agriculture Minister Joe Helper said there could be locust eggs laying dormant in the soil across more than two million hectares.
Mr Helper said the risk of serious locust damage was "still very real and it won't be possible to eradicate the threat, but by acting early and decisively farmers can reduce the impact".
Nationals deputy leader and shadow agriculture minister Peter Walsh accused the Government of copying the Coalition's locust policy.
"When we raised the locust issue (Mr Helper) accused us of ... trying to scaremonger farmers," Mr Walsh said.
"This announcement is an acknowledgment, albeit a belated one, from the Government that the Coalition was not scaremongering, but was listening to the concerns of farmers."
