Changing climate of agriculture

Volume 7 Number 3 March 14 - April 10 2011

University scientists are joining forces with the Department of Primary Industries to form an Australian-first research centre to tackle the challenges Australia’s agriculture industry faces under a changing climate. Zoe Nikakis reports.

The Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre (PICCC) was launched on 16 February by Vice-Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis and the Victorian Minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Water Mr Peter Walsh.

Interim PICCC Director Dr Michael Robinson said the new Centre would bring together more than $30 million worth of research activity and dozens of experts in climate adaptation from across Victoria to maximise collaboration.

He said Victoria was recognised nationally as a leader in the climate change and primary industries research space. PICCC will take a lead role on Australia’s behalf in providing research to address issues arising from changes in climate and variability.

“Changes in climate will present significant challenges and opportunities for Victoria’s primary industries,” Dr Robinson says.

“As our farming industries rely heavily on climatic conditions, any change to these conditions will have a significant impact on our industries.

“The new Centre is unique: it will look at these challenges holistically, addressing the production, environmental and social issues associated with primary industries.

“Such research will allow us to build climate-resilient, sustainable and productive agricultural systems, landscapes and communities.”

Professor Davis says increasingly the patterns of climate and weather, and the way humanity adapts to them, were urgent matters for scientists and policy-makers.

 “Agriculture should be a primary focus of scientists and policy-makers in the years ahead,” he says. “This is a global concern. Worldwide, life is certainly improving for the majority, but we remain at the mercy of nature, for our security and many of our deepest needs.

“At the University of Melbourne, we are eager to take part in the global research effort to meet current and future climate challenges.”

One of the projects undertaken by PICCC researchers is the Australian Grains Free Air Carbon Dioxide program, based at Horsham. It is looking at the impacts of higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere on wheat growth and quality.

“This is the largest such experiment in the southern Hemisphere, and while previous work has shown that elevated carbon dioxide may increase plant growth, nobody has really tested that in Australia,” Dr Robinson says.

“We will also examine the impact on grain quality – will the protein content decline and will it still attract the highest premium for the production of bread and noodles? The study will also look at the impacts of elevated carbon dioxide on wheat pathogens such as wheat stripe rust and crown rot, both of which could substantially reduce productivity.

“Many of these results will then be used by crop modelling experts in conjunction with climate models to predict where the best wheat growing regions are in a changing climate. “In other programs we are looking at the impact of extreme heat events on fruits like apples, pears and wine grapes, and then looking at ways we can reduce that impact through crop management and post-harvest management.

Dr Robinson says PICCC also has significant mitigation programs.

“In the area of nitrous oxide emissions we have been working to benchmark emissions under Australian conditions, both in cropping and forestry, and then to optimise management practices so that as much as possible of the nitrogen applied in fertiliser goes to the plant – and not into the atmosphere or groundwater,” he says.

“We’re also working out ways of reducing methane emissions from livestock. This is looking for win:win opportunities, where through management of the herd and use of dietary supplements we hope to reduce emissions and convert that energy into higher milk production.

PICCC also has a significant social and extension program, with a range of projects seeking to better understand the motivations and drivers of land managers, and how to better learn from them and exchange new knowledge with them.

The issue of food security is also a priority for the Centre.

“By 2050, the world’s population is likely to have reached nine billion, and the demand for food doubled,” Dr Robinson says.

“The challenge for our food producers is to meet this demand while land, water, fertiliser and energy resources are increasingly limited. Meanwhile, the climate is changing in many ways – elevated temperature, greater variability in rainfall patterns, more extreme events – and food production, processing and transport systems are seeking to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

“PICCC aims to address these issues through world-class research that will inform farmers, policy-makers, industry, land managers and the broader community. This partnership is about two strong research institutions joining forces to help address one of Australia’s and the world’s biggest challenges of the next few decades.”

For more information visit www.piccc.org.au