CSIRO is researching practical management solutions to work with primary producers to respond and adapt to climate change.
Australia’s primary industries currently operate in a highly variable climate. This poses significant challenges to production that require sound and responsive management practices.
Climate change has, and will, introduce even greater challenges with shifting patterns and intensity of droughts, increased temperatures and extreme weather events.
Working with farmers to find solutions
A new three-year project, under CSIRO’s Climate Adaptation National Research Flagship, will be working with farmers to develop strategies for a range of mixed cropping and grazing systems Australia-wide to adapt to projected climate change and other business pressures. The project is run by a multidisciplinary team from CSIRO, State Governments and private research agencies.
By combining information from real mixed cropping systems with expected climate change impacts, farmers identify on-farm management options that they believe may offset negative impacts.
These options are then tested using a series of cropping and grazing models to determine the production and natural resource management implications of introducing these adaptations.
CSIRO will be working with farmers to develop strategies for a range of mixed cropping and grazing systems to adapt to projected climate change.
As the work incorporates farmer knowledge it provides the best chance for impact from adaptation science and uptake on the ground.
Implementing the adaptation options identified through this collaborative approach could result in significant reduction in production losses from projected climate change.
For example, simulations for Australia's wheat growing industry for the year 2070 showed that the benefits from adapting by changing varieties and changing planting windows could be worth approximately A$100m to A$550m per annum when compared to current management practices.
Research activities
This project will establish a coordinated network of research activities with farmer and science groups across Australia.
Using a participatory research approach the goal is to adapt cropping and mixed cropping/grazing system businesses for a future with a more variable climate.
Establishing case studies in New South Wales (NSW), Tasmania, South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria, the project aims to:
- identify vulnerability to climate change across Australia as measured by exposure to production risk and available adaptive capacity
- improve formal evaluation of climate change impacts and effective adaptation options across a number of locations
- design and test appropriate regional adaptation practices and business designs that will provide resilience to projected climate change
- evaluate the likely costs and benefits of adaptation options as well as investigate existing barriers to adoption.
Partners
The resilient farmers project is a partnership between:
The project is partially funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation and Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) under the four-year Climate Change Research Program.
The Climate Change Research Program aims to deliver research activities initially focusing on reducing greenhouse pollution, better soil management and climate change adaptation.
Past work
This new project builds on work done over the last three years to bring together both farmer’s expert knowledge and CSIRO agriculture and modelling expertise:
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in three major grains regions: southeast Queensland (Jandowae), northern Victoria (Birchip) and northern grain region of Western Australia (Mingenew)
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with New South Wales mixed cropping farmers in Namoi, Lachlan, Murrumbidgee, and Murray catchments.
It builds on the principles of understanding and measuring the adaptive capacity of rural communities. This principle will be taken forward to provide a more informed assessment of vulnerability.
Find out more about CSIRO's Climate Adaptation Flagship.
References
Crimp SJ, Howden SM, Power B, Wang E, de Voil P. 2008. Climate change impacts on Australia’s wheat crops [137KB PDF, external link]. Report to the Garnaut Climate Change Review. 13 pp.
Crimp S, Gartmann A, DeVoil P, Gaydon D, Howden M, Odgers J. 2008. Adapting Australian farming systems to climate change: a participatory approach [1.7MB PDF, external link]. Final Report for The Department of Climate Change.
Nelson R, Kokic P, Crimp S, Martin P, Meinke H, Howden M, Devoil P, McKeon G, Nidumolu U. 2009. The vulnerability of Australian agriculture to climate variability & change: Part II – Vulnerability assessments that support adaptation. In review: Environmental Science & Policy.
Crimp S, Howden M, Laing A, Gaydon D, Gartmann A, Brown P, Nelson R. 2009. Managing future agricultural production in a variable and changing climate. In the proceedings of the International Scientific Congress on Climate Change – Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions. 10-12 March 2009. Copenhagen. Pp. 328 – 332.
Howden M, Crimp S, Laing A, Nidumolu U, Nelson R, Stafford Smith M. 2009. Can climate change make food-rich countries like Australia food-poor? In Proceedings of: Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions. March 10-12 2009. Copenhagen.
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