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Farming Profitably in a Changing Climate: Workshop Summary
To help Australia's agricultural industries meet the challenge of a changing climate, the Bureau of Rural Sciences of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the Australian Greenhouse Office of the Department of Environment and Heritage, and the Managing Climate Variability R&D Program of Land & Water Australia co-sponsored a workshop on 7 - 8 December 2004 in Canberra. The workshop was opened by a former Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. The goal of the workshop was to work with industry to identify the risks associated with a changing climate and to examine the industry's adaptive capacity to minimise these risks. Over 50 representatives of the agricultural production, government and scientific research communities participated in the meeting. The major conclusions of the workshop were:
Sensitivity to climate
Most industries can handle gradual change in an underlying climatic mean, even if it involves shifts in the incidence of extreme events, through management of within-season variability. A major, abrupt change in climate, however, would cause problems.
A critical question for the climate sciences is whether climate change will unfold as gradual change in underlying averages, to which agricultural industries can adapt in many cases, or will it unfold as a series of abrupt or stepped changes that will severely stretch industries' capacity to cope?
Climate and decision-making
The type of climate information required to support decision-making in the agricultural industries depends fundamentally on whether tactical (within growing season) or strategic (multi-year or decadal) decisions are being considered.
For most Australian agricultural industries, within-season variability remains the most important feature of climate that affects profitability. The ways in which underlying, long-term trends in climate affect within-season variability is the most important feature of climate change for rural industries.
Managing for a changing climate: avoiding the risks and seizing the opportunities
A risk management approach is an effective way for Australia's rural industries to respond to a changing climate. Particularly when it is based on a holistic approach to climate change, considering changes in temperature, rainfall, humidity, winds, storms, etc., a risk management approach provides a sound framework for identifying, analysing, evaluating and dealing with the challenges and opportunities associated with climate change.
Maintaining and increasing profitability
Producers have already learnt much about maintaining profitability in a variable climate, which will be directly useful in dealing with longer term change in climate.
The key to managing profitably under a changing climate is flexibility and adaptability, with industry driving the process.
Government policy and scientific research strategy
Managing for climate risks is a responsibility of producers and the rural industries themselves, but coherent government policy and targeted scientific research can support the various management approaches of industry.
The workshop felt strongly that a 'whole-of-Australia' approach is needed to deal effectively with climate change. This requires integration of effort and resources across the producer/industry, government and research sectors, and integration of adaptation and mitigation approaches, whilst maintaining the individuality of climate adaptation strategies for particular industries.
The next step is the production of a state-of-the-art assessment of our current understanding of the adaptability of Australia's agricultural industries to changing climate risks. The report will provide a working baseline for further consultations with individual industries and across various regions. This process, to be carried out over a 6-8 month period after the workshop, will refine industry perspectives on the nature of climate risks and the types of scientific information and decision support tools that will be useful to industry to implement a risk management approach.
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