Climate change in Australia: agricultural impacts and adaptation

Ross S. Kingwell

Australasian Agribusiness Review, 2006, vol. 14

Abstract: Impacts on Australian agriculture of projected climate change are likely to be spatially and temporally diverse, with many regions likely to experience increased downside risk in agricultural production. Some regions, such as south-west Australia, are projected to be particularly at risk of adverse outcomes associated with climate change. The rate and extent of warming, along with impacts on rainfall distributions, are key determinants of agricultural impacts and will affect the success of adaptation strategies. The likely gradual unfolding of climate change should provide farmers in many regions and industries with sufficient time to utilise or develop adaptation strategies. Many of these strategies are likely to be based on farmers’ current responses to climate variability. Investments in R&D and innovation could be important ingredients in facilitating farmers’ adaptation to climate change. Farmers are likely to face additional costs of capital adjustment due to climate change. Investment in long-lived climate-dependent agricultural assets such as irrigation infrastructure, vineyards and agroforestry will become more problematic. Investing in ecological assets in rural regions, especially where these assets may become stranded by climate change, also will be increasingly problematic.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Crop Production/Industries; Environmental Economics and Policy; Farm Management; Food Security and Poverty; Land Economics/Use; Livestock Production/Industries; Political Economy; Productivity Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/126110/files/Kingwell.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:auagre:126110

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.126110

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Australasian Agribusiness Review from University of Melbourne, Department of Agriculture and Food Systems
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().