TABLE 9: Climate resilience guiding documents

3.6 RLP Outcome 6: There is an increase in the capacity of agriculture systems to adapt to significant changes in climate and market demands for information on provenance and sustainable production.

The Australian Government has identified its approach to improving climate resilience and adaptation in the agriculture sector in its National Climate Resilience and Adaptation Strategy 2021-2025, with three main objectives: • Drive investment and action through collaboration • Improve climate information and services • Assess progress and improve over time

TABLE 9: Climate resilience guiding documents

Priority

Resilient industries and communities

Further information

National Climate Resilience and Adaptation Strategy 2021-2025

Resilient communities and industries

This Australian Government investment priority relates to the resilience and adaptive capacity of agricultural systems, including soil and water, productive capacity, farmers and their families and workers and rural communities, in the face of climatic and market information changes.

In the last 15 years Tasmania has experienced 1 in 100-year floods and droughts, including increasing frequency of dry seasons and changes in seasonal rainfall patterns. During that time Tasmanian agriculture has also seen a dramatic and rapid increase in irrigation infrastructure and use, demonstrating the urgency of adapting to these changes and unpredictability. However, irrigation is expensive and still limited in reach and capacity, and many farmers and their surrounding rural communities continue to experience hardships from locally-experienced climate variability, due in part to the relative novelty of these impacts and cultural inertia holding back significant increases in adaptive capacity. This paucity of adaptive capacity can cause wider social problems in the longer term, as many Tasmanian farming practices are high visible to locals and tourists – land degradation and livestock welfare problems related to climatic changes and poor adaptive capacity may create significant social licence issues for rural industries. Therefore, increasing agriculture’s capacity to adapt to climatic changes and variability will also increase capacity to adapt to significant changes in market demand for information on sustainable production. Key issues include: • Risks to some aspects of soil function are increased by climate change, particularly erosion and soil carbon reduction under extreme conditions.

• The threat of extreme climatic events has the potential to greatly influence production. Flooding from intense rainfall events at a local and regional level is a recognised risk that may increase under changing climate and rising sea levels. • There may be increased potential for agricultural production in some areas as temperatures change, with opportunities for new crops that prefer a warmer climate, resulting in land-use change or intensification in those areas.

• Impacts from increased extreme weather events and projected drought, flooding and fire risk increases will certainly affect the health of our rural communities through associated loss of income, mental health issues and physical stress.