Climate Projects
BCG has prioritised climate variability and climate change as critical issues facing agriculture and rural communities. We have identified and developed a number of projects to increase knowledge, awareness and adoption of practices to address these issues. Climate change is likely to result in increasing levels of variability in rainfall and temperature. Farmers will need to adopt new and innovative tools and methods to survive and prosper. Several tactical and strategic adaptations are being tested and evaluated as part of BCG climate projects.
In the 2007/2008 BCG Members Survey, 88% of members responded saying that they have made changes to management practices as a result of changed climate. This highlights that most farmers are willing and capable of adapting.
Common adaptations have included changing to direct drill and no-till practices, changing crop selection, opportunity cropping, changing sowing date, changing weed control strategies and fallow rotations. The factors that influenced the decision to make these changes included: talking to others and reading relevant research, historical experiences, financial situation, weather patterns andsoil moisture. 52% of respondents believed that the changes were moderately successful, with 38% believing they were substantially successful. Under future climate change and with increased variability, a number of new and additional adaptation options will need to be considered.
BCG is also involved with a number of seasonal climate forecasting tools, as most farmers want accurate short and long term forecasts.
Developing agribusinesses more resilient to climate change
This new three-year project, under CSIRO’s Climate Adaptation National Research Flagship, is working with farmers and scientists 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 undertaken by a multidisciplinary team from CSIRO, State Governments and private research agencies. The Victorian component is led by BCG.
Australian farm groups demonstrating adaptive practices to minimise the impact of climate change on farm viability
This project is part of a national initiative representing the Northern, Southern, and Western GRDC regions. The strength of the initiative is strong linkages with research in the existing climate research programs which will ensure direct extension, demonstration of outcomes, strong collaborative linkages, and well integrated programs.
A national network of demonstration sites, coordinated by key farm groups (owned and driven by farmers) in each State working in conjunction with State Agencies and CSIRO, is examining new and alternative strategies for farmers in the Australian broadacre wheat/sheep zone to mitigate the negative effects and capitalise on the opportunities of climate change on their production systems. The farm groups are uniquely situated to, not only demonstrate new practices, but also to bring awareness of the impacts of climate change and adaptations required to ensure continuing farm viability. Farm groups have direct access to other farmers, advisers, input suppliers and wider local communities.
A transect approach will be employed for the alignment of demonstration sites to ensure that the relative value of adaptation options can be compared across low to high rainfall regions. This approach will test a series of climate change adaptation options in experimental field conditions and enable the effective modeling of the outcomes of the demonstrations on farm income and risk management.
The grower group partners for this component of the project are:
Victoria: Mallee Sustainable Farming Systems and BCG
SA:Ag Excellence Alliance (in SA the Ag Excellence Alliance will coordinate activities with the Minipa, Yorke and mid-North groups)
WA:WA Grower Group Alliance (in WA the Grower Group Alliance will coordinate activities with the West Midlands and the North East Farming Futures groups
NSW: Farm Link and the Central West - Condobolin groups
Tasmania: Southern Farming Systems (north midlands)
Queensland:Qld DEEDI will coordinate activities with the Chinchilla landcare group
Newsletters produced by BCG can be accessed here:
Changing Climate Changing Practices Edition 1 – June 2010
Changing Climate Changing Practices Edition 2 – July 2010
Adapting Australian farming systems to climate change: a participatory approach
Supported by the Australian Greenhouse Office, this is a collaborative project with CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Mingenew Irwin Group (WA), Brigalow Jimbour Floodplain Group (Qld) and RMCG Consulting.
The project explored options to increase the resilience of mixed farming systems across Australia to climate change. It assessed how a range of possible climate change scenarios will affect farming systems in the three regions, how the systems are vulnerable and identifying feasible adaptation options to these changes.
The final report can be viewed by clicking the following link. Adapting Australian farming systems to climate change: a participatory approach
Communicating Climate Change
Supported by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, this collaborative project with Land and Water Australia, Bureau of Resource Sciences, Bureau Meteorology and Meat and Livestock Australia.
Yield Prophet - Expanding Capabilities
Supported by the Managing Climate Variability Program through Land and Water Australia, this one year project was completed in January 2008. It was a collaborative project between BCG and CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, enhancing the science components of Yield Prophet.
Managing natural resource issues in a variable and changing climate
CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems is working with BCG to assess how existing climate variability and trends fundamentally alter risks in natural resource management (NRM) and identify options to reduce that risk so that farmers and catchment managers have the actionable knowledge that is necessary to enable them to respond constructively to the challenges of sustainable management in both a variable and changing climate.The research to date has shown both modest productivity and NRM benefits from using seasonal climate information for a range of farming systems in the Birchip region.Frost amelioration strategies that consider trends in minimum temperatures have also been examined showing productivity benefits for a number of sites in the Birchip region.
Useful Climate Websites
The Victorian Government's Climate Change website provides information about the comprehensive suite of actions led by the Victorian Government to address climate change and how you can play your part.
Victorian Climate Change Program
Or look at specific climate change information for specifice regions in Victoria
Climate change in the Wimmera region
Climate change in the Mallee region
Climate change in the North Central region
CSIRO's Helping Australia to adapt to a changing climate: video. The short video introduces Climate Adaptation Flagship, and provides an overview of climate adaptation issues facing Australia. The video includes interviews with people on the front line of adapting to climate change.
See Ian McClelland (BCG chairman) and local farmers on ABC's Lateline on 3 December 2007 discussing climate change.