Horticulture Climate Change Action Plan - Summary:

A climate change Action Plan has been recently developed for the horticulture industry to help prioritise urgent R,D&E needs. The Action Plan has three themes: Adaptation, Mitigation and Information, Communication & Awareness.

The industry has invested $18.8 million in adaptation activities over the past 5 years, but this is small investment when compared to other primary industries and when considering that the majority of this investment has been focused on drought – related activities such as water use efficiency during severe water shortages.

The industry acknowledges the need for further investment to address knowledge gaps – through existing RD&E frameworks like CCRSPI and the Horticulture Climate Change Action Plan.

The horticulture industry continues to value improvements in production efficiencies and best management practices as approaches to managing ongoing climate variability and change.

The Horticulture Climate Change Action Plan has been recently developed specifically to identify urgent RD&E needs for the area of climate change/variability within the HAL Environment Portfolio in order to answer the question, “What does climate change mean to my farm?”

Being knowledgeable about the likely impacts of climate change and developing a positive approach to adapting enterprises to a different future, is central to the Horticulture Climate Change Action Plan.

Click here to view the Horticulture Climate Change Action Plan.

The Horticulture Climate Change Action Plan has three components:
1. Adaptation,
2. Mitigation, and
3. Information, awareness and communication.

All three components are guided by seeking answers to the questions being asked by those in the horticulture industry.

The Horticulture Climate Change Action Plan will be implemented through the HAL Environment Portfolio, in consultation and on behalf of industry. To achieve this there is a need to focus on empowering industry leaders, facilitating meaningful partnerships, encouraging innovation and adoption of research, informing policy and positioning the industry.

Success of the Horticulture Climate Change Action Plan will result in:

• Resilient and adaptive horticultural production systems which are less vulnerable to climate change and climate variability
• Improved resilience to changes in pest and disease incidence
• Increased ability to capitalise on new market opportunities
• Regionally specific climate change scenarios, which are very relevant to managers of horticultural enterprises
• Practical tools available to horticultural growers and their advisors to better manage climate change and climate variability