A Dry Argument: Farmer Adjustment to Climate Change

摘要

A summary prepared by Emeritus Professor Ted Wolfe FAIAST, of a professional seminar and panel held in Wagga Wagga, July 29 2009, co-sponsored by the ACT/ Southern NSW Division of the AIAST, the EH Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation (an alliance between NSW DPI and CSU) and Wagga Wagga City Council. Farmers in southern Australia are making considerable progress in adjusting to dry seasons but further time and support is needed to complete the process emerged as the main conclusion from the seminar series and public panel discussion. Evidence collected by the Birchip Cropping Group in the southern Mallee area of Victoria and by NSW DPI in the eastern Riverina points towards a consolidation in the number of mixed farms (wheat/sheep) - a reduction of about 18% over the last decade (to 2008).