Projects

Objective:
The Managing Climate Variability Program (MCVP) was a joint initiative between Land and Water Australia, Grains RDC, Rural Industries RDC, Sugar RDC, Dairy Australia, Meat and Livestock Australia, Australian Wool Innovation and several non-rural RDC agencies that ran between 2002 and 2006.

Costing $6 million, the aim of the program was to sustain the adoption of the preceding program’s outputs and deliver new tools for improving climate risk management to farmers and resource managers, in particular more accurate long term seasonal forecasts.

Collaboration:

MCVP followed on from the Climate Variability in Agriculture Program (CVAP) that ran between 1997 and 2002.

It was recognised that achieving the objectives of CVAP and MCVP would require the support of a number of RDCs as no single RDC or NRM agency could undertake the tailoring of climate science for Australia’s land managers. The initiative would require investment from each participating RDC, which would then allow it to deliver the best available technology to its stakeholders.

Similarly, MCVP was established to satisfy the growing demand for climate variability management knowledge and products, and to demonstrate how these could improve producer profitability. It was recognised that no other agency was willing to undertake these exercises alone.

LWA acts as the managing agent, with participating RDCs and agencies forming the management committee.

Results:

Seasonal climate forecasts are now taken into account by about half of Australian primary producers. The improved decision making that has resulted has captured an increase in medium to long-term average farm cash incomes.

• MCV has played a critical role in the development of SOI-based seasonal climate forecasts for agricultural industries.
• Climate R&D has resulted in improved seasonal forecasts and increased confidence by many decision makers in rural industries.
• MCV has contributed to the evolution of seasonal climate forecasting tools such as Australian Rainman, Yield Prophet, Whopper Cropper and AussieGRAASS. These tools enable farmers to factor climate into on-farm decisions and planning.
• An LWA Corporate assessment of its investment in climate through CVAP demonstrated an ROI of 5.12 to 1 for all investors.
• CVAP and now MCV have given a national focus for climate risk management.

Measures of Success:
A major indicator of success will be an increase in the number of farmers and natural resource managers who factor seasonal forecasts into their management decisions.