The challenge
Agriculture needs to adapt and reduce emissions
Climate change is a key threat to agricultural production worldwide with grim implications for food and nutrition security, livelihoods, and overall well-being.
In many parts of the world, drying trends, shorter growing seasons and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events have already started to reduce agricultural productivity and require producers to adapt.
In addition to being impacted by climate change, the agriculture sector contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Approximately 24 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities come from the agriculture, forest and other land uses, including 15 per cent from the livestock sector.
The imperative for action – both to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to a changing climate – is drawing global attention.
Our response
Developing climate smart strategies to increase climate resilience and reduce agriculture's carbon footprint
Through the development and application of climate smart technologies, our teams of scientists and engineers support decision-making for a productive, profitable, sustainable and resilient agriculture across Australia and the wider region.
In particular, our research aims to support:
- policy and investment decision-makers by developing systems analysis tools and approaches for climate smart farming
- agricultural sector decision-makers with data and information to maximise revenue and manage risk
- the agricultural sector through innovative agronomy and livestock approaches including biotechnology and genetic advancements
- the development of integrated technologies at the farm system level through improved metrics of sustainable animal and crop production and social licence benchmarks.