The way the changing climate will impact different farming regions of Australia has been outlined in a new report from Rural Bank.
The agricultural bank has released its first climate report for primary producers, providing an in depth look at what climatic changes farmers can expect in their region.
The report looks at the projected impact of climate change state by state as well as in reference to average global temperatures and its impact on agriculture.
“When we look at Queensland, we’re talking about higher rainfall events, whereas in Victoria, we’re talking about the state becoming hotter and drier from the north towards the south,” Rural Bank’s Andrew Smith told AAP on Tuesday.
In Queensland the report found warmer temperatures are already reducing the life cycle of wheat and will cause flowering to occur two to three weeks earlier by 2030.
The report laid out how heat stress days, which are those days over 35 degrees Celsius, will increase in Brisbane by 2050 from approximately two days a year to eight.
Predictions for Tasmania expect the temperature rise to be less than for most of the rest of Australia.
It also looked at the projected impact of climate change by commodity and industry.
Climate and carbon specialist David Hine said it’s important to understand how the changing climate is impacting on nature, including the flowering time of different species.
“It has been impacting on productivity, some technological advances have helped mitigate that,” Mr Hyne said.
The report also calls for more focused research to examine the roles agriculture and land management can play in emission reduction targets.
Mr Smith said it was important to examine the impact of climate change at a farm gate level.
“I think the takeout for us was very much around understanding your own landscape, and if adaptation is required to transition through that,” Mr Smith said.
“It may mean some areas become tougher from a profitability perspective,” he said.
Liv Casben
(Australian Associated Press)