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.
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 is a collaborative project between BCG and CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, enhancing the science components of Yield Prophet.
Communicating Climate Change
Supported by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, this is a collaborative project with Land and Water Australia, Bureau of Resource Sciences, Bureau Meteorology and Meat and Livestock Australia.
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 is exploring options to increase the resilience of mixed farming systems across Australia to climate change. It is assessing 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.
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.
See Ian McClelland (BCG chairman) and local farmers on ABC'sLateline on 3 December 2007 discussing climate change.
