Farming in an even more sunburnt country

By: Rachel Hill, Landcare and Community Support Officer

Variable climate, severe storms, increased rainfall or decreased rainfall (depending on where you live), more floods and more droughts, temperature increases and sea-level rise; these are just some of the many terms associated with climate change. The effort to combat climate change is now a global phenomenon, but what does this all mean for those of is living in the Namoi catchment?

Australia has a history of climate extremes and this has provided a challenge for our primary producers for centuries. The concept of a landscape of “droughts and flooding rains” is not new to Australians and indeed our agricultural industries have learnt to adapt and even benefit from these extremes. The concern now is that recent climate variability is mainly due to humans. Steven Crimp, a climate impacts scientist with CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems (CSE) states: “Global changes in climate that have been observed in recent decades can only be accounted for if both anthropogenic (i.e. human influence), as well as natural, factors are considered”.

The Namoi Catchment is a climatically diverse area of Australia, with a range of landscapes and types of land-use. Even closer to home, the Liverpool Plains has been aptly named the “food bowl” of Australia and produces a large proportion of Australia’s wheat, beef, barley, soy beans, corn, chickpeas, sorghum and more. It is expected that climate variability will have some affect on our agricultural industries in both the Liverpool Plains and the wider Namoi catchment, but how and how much? In order to protect our industries into the future, it is important to prepare for any climatic change which may or may not occur.

Steven Crimp highlights the need to plan for the future: “As current agricultural and natural resource management practices have been strongly shaped by historical climate conditions, the impacts of projected changes in future climate needs to be assessed in order to quantify and plan for likely changes in future productivity and landscape condition”.

These issues will be addressed at the upcoming Climate Change evening on June 12th 4.30pm at the in Somerton War Memorial Hall. Steven Crimp will give a presentation on the implications for climate change on land-based production including: changes for rangeland productivity, commercial seedling establishment, grazing animal heat stress, crop production and catchment hydrology.

Although we live in an agriculture-rich landscape, there are many of us who reside in towns who want to play a role in protecting our natural resources from the harmful impact of climate change. Michael O’Loughlin from the University of New England suggests that when communities band together, they can make a substantial mark on the fight against climate change:

“We feel by helping communities share their local solutions and adaptive strategies they can co-evolve in response to climate and global changes.” Michael will be presenting at the Climate Change Evening on how communities can work together, build networks and share our learning so we can successfully adapt and become more climate smart.

It is evident that as individuals, groups and communities, we will need to evolve and adapt to changes resulting from climate variability. Sue Martin will be giving practical solutions on how to be proactive in our approach to climate change here in the Namoi Catchment. Sue, who is ACF’s ‘Climate Change Connector’, explains that preparing for climate change requires a lateral approach as she will outline in her presentation: “The solutions will be about around using our head, hearts and hands to work together to make a real difference to global warming in our local communities”. 

To learn more about how climate change will affect you, please come along to the Climate Change evening on 12^th June at the Somerton War Memorial Hall. This social evening will begin with presentations by Steven Crimp, Michael O’Loughlin and Sue Martin and will conclude with a question time then hot supper. A free bus will be available from both Tamworth and Gunnedah. For more information contact Judy Lee Phone: 67 429614 or email: judy.m.lee@tafensw.edu.au.