The challenge for Australian agriculture… build agro-ecosystems to match flows of water,...

The challenge for Australian agriculture…

build agro-ecosystems to match flows of water, nutrient, carbon with the hydro-geochemical cycles

requires fundamental redesign of agriculture in the landscape

Redesigning agriculture in the landscape

1. become landscape literate

2. cure the drought delusion

3. pay for ecosystem services

4. remove hidden subsidies

5. replan the paddock

6. build new industries, not just new crops

7. use native flora & fauna

8. create new partnerships & knowledge

9. unlock tools for change

10. test the whole package

1. Becoming landscape literate change in scientific & technical

services for agricultural sector

recognition that ecosystem processes differ on every farm

there are no experts - only students

giving landholders time to conduct a study tour of their own back paddocks

application & experimentation at the farm level

understanding how actions integrate into the ecological & hydrological function of landscapes

2. Curing the drought delusion

there are droughts, and there are dry climates

stop growing things in areas that result in:

• soil & water degradation

• loss of habitat & species

sustainable agriculture must cope with decade long dry sequences

rethink our fundamental values of water & landscape & our relationship to them

April 20, 2023 5TYPE IN PRESENTATION NAME

Annual Flows In Lachlan River at Forbes

Annual Flows in Lachlan River at Forbes

Annual Flows in Murrimbidgee at Wagga Wagga

Tasmania Annual Rainfall-anomaly

Tasmania Annual Rainfall-high rainfall years

Tasmania Annual Rainfall-low rainfall years

CSIRO LAND and WATER

Loxton SA: Annual Rainfall 273mm

2002- 106mm (Decile 1)

2002: -Excessive Cultivation

-no stubble protection

-crop lost this year

-soil and nutrients lost

-major restoration required

Courtesy David Roget of CSIRO

CSIRO LAND and WATER

Waikerie SA: Annual Rainfall 252mm

2002- 110mm (Decile 1)

2002 :-Intensive Cropping with Zero Tillage

-some crop (cash flow)

-stable soil (this years crop and last years stubble)

-ready to crop next year

Courtesy David Roget of CSIRO

6 November 2002Riverina

6 November 2002Riverina….10 minutes later

3. Paying for ecosystem services

agriculture needs to manage the whole

landscape to produce ecosystem services

for urban societies

pay for the maintenance of ecological

functions & services essential to urban

societies

need new & old agricultural enterprises

to:

• yield food & fibre

• provide ecosystem services with a present value

new markets for ecosystem services are

needed

(Credit: Dinah Johanson. Modified from Wayt Gibbs, Scientific American, 2005)

The future form of

sustainable agriculture

4. Remove hidden subsidies

cost of food doesn’t include cost of maintaining natural resource base

regulatory framework to ensure food production minimises damage to natural resources & environment

need an Australian standard for sustainable agriculture for local & imported products

‘Australian Sustainable Agriculture Standard’ must include whole life cycle analysis of energy, water, land & biodiversity inputs into production

5. Replanning the paddock take stock of what is really needed on a

catchment scale

vegetation as a tool to ensure biophysical landscape processes

link to spatially robust catchment vegetation plans

Figure out:

Image: Hawkesbury Nepean CMA

• what species & structural complexity is needed

• where can regeneration of remnant vegetation be beneficial

• what’s already lost: don’t throw good money after bad

6. Building new industries

strategy to build new industries &

prospective land uses - economic & ecological

benefits

new catchment based trade arrangements,

eg cooperative arrangements for carbon

trading

production of unfamiliar commodities

accompanied by marketing efforts

demand needs to be created

7. Using native flora and fauna

use of native flora & fauna needs to form

an increasing part of rural production:

• bush foods

• native wildflowers

• essential & other oils for pharmaceutical or

industrial chemicals

8. Creating new partnershipsand knowledge

no experts in redesigning agricultural systems

new partnerships:• scientific & technical skills embedded in regional

culture

• between communities, biophysical scientists, conservation biologists, sociologists & economists

new science within rural communities facing environmental, social & economic changes

9. Unlocking the tools of change

To redesign paddocks farmers need:

capacity to measure/model/predict water, nutrient, carbon flows in agro-ecosystems & relate these to flows in landscape

access to new land assessment tools to predict/model/map best locations for:• trees & other perennial plants

• high-value annuals

• native vegetation

coordinated access to data to enable access to new technologies

integrated, decentralised information services relevant at a catchment scale

10. Testing the package

use volunteer farms in NRM regions as demos:

use working farms that remain viable after redesign

test paddock layout, land uses, vegetation, etc

if it works – it’s a model for the region

if it doesn’t - can avoid making new problems

support existing model farms to share

experiences

Can we get it right?Can we get it right? it requires a commitment from

everyone to:

• rethink their approach

• re-envisage the farm

• re-engage with each other to learn from the land itself

this is the challenge as well as the opportunity

““The future is not some place we are The future is not some place we are

going to.going to.

It is a place we are creating. It is a place we are creating.

The path to the future is not found. The path to the future is not found.

It is made.”It is made.”

Peter EllyardPeter Ellyard

‘‘We still have time to make the necessary We still have time to make the necessary

changes to our lives, but we need to take changes to our lives, but we need to take

stock now and be clear about where we stock now and be clear about where we

are going in the future.’are going in the future.’

David SukukiDavid Sukuki

But Climate Change and Access to Energy is

going to make it moredifficult

The Rural and Coastal Landscapes and their Communities are under

Transformation Image: © Fiona McKenzie 2008