Improving the usefulness of seasonal climate forecasts

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Improving the use and usefulness of seasonal climate forecasts requires farmers and industry to understand forecasting information better and share ideas, concepts and approaches to using the information.

As part of the Australian Government funded Rural R&D for Profit project, BCG is facilitating a seasonal climate forecasting Community of Practice. This group of climate scientists, extension specialists, advisers and farmers from different agricultural sectors around Australia meet twice a month to discuss seasonal forecasting, including the opportunities for developing and improving existing products, tools and services.

The Community of Practice aims to improve collaboration and open discussion channels among those interested in seasonal forecasting. The expected outcome is to improve access to, and understanding of, forecasting information. For a farmer this will lead to better application of the forecasting information and improved decision making at the seasonal scale.

Helpfully, farmers can also have conversations with climate forecasters through the Community of Practice.

This project, ‘Improved use of seasonal forecasting to increase farmer profitability’ is also investigating:

  • Valuing the forecast, which is putting an economic value on seasonal climate forecasting for each farming sector, through this work producers can use forecast information to enhance farm business decision-making. Sector-based case studies will identify when the economic value of using seasonal climate forecasting information in farm management decision making is greatest.
  • ACCESS-S model enhancement, will improve the seasonal forecasting capabilities of the Bureau of Meteorology’s ACCESS-S model for rural Australia. This will reduce errors in the model to improve the quality of seasonal predictions for producers.

If you are interested in being part of the Community of Practice, please contact BCG project officer Jemma Pearl at [email protected].

This project is supported by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation through funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture as part of its Rural R&D for profit programme. Other partners include Cotton Research Development Corporation, Grains Research and Development Corporation, Meat and Livestock Australia and Sugar Research Australia.

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