Adaptation to Climate Change by Australian Farmers

John Freebairn

doi:10.3390/cli9090141

Abstract

Climate change in the form of higher temperatures, changes of rainfall patterns, and for some, more natural disasters will reduce the returns from current farming choices on what to produce and the production methods. Variation of climate change across regions and uncertainty about the magnitudes of change call for a diverse mix of adaptations to climate change across different regions and individual farms. This paper considers the institutional structure for effective climate change adaptation by Australian farms. It is argued that a rerun of the history of successful adaptation of farms to new technology, changes in output and input prices, natural climate variation, and other circumstances can be repeated for climate change adaptation. Individual farms can benefit from incentives and rewards to revise their decisions, which will combine with better individual outcomes. Complementary support by the government includes the provision of climate change and weather forecast information, support for research into new technology, help to evaluate the pros and cons of alternative choices, and provision of a social safety net for those unable to adapt.

Highlights

This paper provides an overview of the support for the assertion the current institutional structure and its operation for farm decision-making, including adaptation to recent climate change and projected future climate change, will facilitate another round of successful farming adaptation via changes in the decisions made, in favor of different options
The current competitive industry structure, as over history and as it will in the future, provides the incentives and rewards for individual farms to adapt to changes in their circumstances, of which climate change is just one of the many ongoing changes that alter the relative returns of alternative choices on where to produce, what to produce, and the production method
Climate change for many farms will reduce the net benefits of many current decision made on the products to produce and the production methods

Summary

Introduction

Farmers have a historical track record of successful adaptation to variable climate events, changes in technology, changes in absolute and relative product prices, changes in the relative costs of different inputs, changes in general macroeconomics, regulation in the agricultural sector and other industry policies, and further circumstances [4,5,6,7]. Economics and Sciences (ABARES), who provide estimates using simulation models of the effects of climate change over recent decades on farm production and incomes by region in Australia [8,9]. The focus of this paper on the institutional arrangements to facilitate climate change adaptation seeks to recognize the heterogeneity of different individual farms’ circumstances, ongoing changes in several sets of circumstances affecting the relative merits of different choices, imperfect information, and the inflow of new information.

The Farming Sector

Climate Change Facing Australian Farmers

A History of Successful Adaptation to Changes

Government in the Game

Findings

Conclusions