For Australian primary producers, the variability of the Australian weather and climate is one of the most difficult risks to manage. Enter the Climate Research Strategy for Primary Industries (CRSPI), a partnership aimed at introducing strategies and innovations related to climate and climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation.
AgriFutures Australia’s Senior Manager, Research John Smith said the value of the collaborative program lies in the partner focus on investing for industry, but also the community.
“CRSPI provides a forum for partners to share knowledge, draw on capability and co-invest where a collaborative response is the most efficient and effective way of addressing a particular research, development and extension (RD&E) need,” said Mr Smith.
“The unprecedented rate of change makes collaboration even more important, as the resources required to address climate change are beyond the capacity of any one organisation to fund or implement.”
A recent industry collaboration through the Australian Government Rural R&D for Profit Program Improved use of seasonal forecasting to increase farmer profitability has improved the accuracy of forecasting tools and timing of these around key periods of risk for agricultural applications.
Research partnerships such as these are continuing to work on prediction tools to enable farmers to easily tap into the science and understand if there are financial or environmental benefits in changing management practices.
