Adapting to a more variable climate

Climate variability will increase with climate change.

You can reduce the negative impacts of increasing climate variability through adaptation.

Read more about:

• Making complex decisions about your cropping/livestock business
• Growing vegetables – water sustainability
• Horticultural crops – adapting to temperature changes

Making complex decisions about your cropping/livestock business

To adapt to a more variable climate, consider whether you should:

• change your farming system (crop/livestock)
• change your approach to sowing
• change crop types
• cultivate more/less
• decrease your stocking rate

These decisions are complex because of:

• risk and uncertainty e.g. timing of the autumn break, increased storms
• unknowns e.g. interactions between increases in carbon dioxide and changes in temperature and rainfall
• economic considerations e.g. increased labour costs if you change towards livestock
• social considerations e.g. the prospect of living in a less attractive environment

Read more about Making farm decisions in a changing climate [PDF 156 kb]

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Growing vegetables – water sustainability

Water sustainability for the future has information on all aspects of water sustainability. It is designed for farmers, industry bodies, government, and individual businesses involved in the commercial vegetable growing sector.

For each region, and for Australia as a whole, you can find information on:

• the region, including production in that region
• climate
• water policy
• water supply
• irrigation use
• vegetables grown (and value, number of producers, distribution of producers)
• soil types

You can search for information by region or by state and/or vegetable.

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Horticultural crops – adapting to temperature changes

Horticultural crops are particularly sensitive to temperature, most having specific temperature requirements for the development of optimum yield and quality.

Understanding the specific effects of temperature change on crops is a necessary step in providing growers with decision-making tools to manage and adapt to climate change.

Peter Deuter from Agriscience Queensland has been researching critical temperature thresholds for horticultural crops and the effects of temperature change on the following crops:

• Apple
• Avocado
• Banana
• Capsicum
• Lettuce
• Macadamia
• Pineapple
• Tomato

Peter has written a case study for each crop, summarising his findings from reviewing the literature and consulting industry.

Each case study includes:

• crop production data – key varieties, optimum growing conditions, and seasonality
• the current level of knowledge on temperature thresholds
• projected regional temperature changes
• discussion on how projected temperature increases will affect the crop
• discussion on the capacity for growers to adapt through management practices

A range of temperature thresholds exist for a specific crop depending on the cultivar being grown, the location and the time of the year. Each threshold relates to a specific development phase such as seed germination, floral initiation, dormancy and head filling.

Each case study concentrates on one critical temperature threshold at a specific development phase.

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