State-wide Outcome
By 2050, actions have been implemented to improve the resilience of landscapes, communities, and enterprises, and the capacity to adapt to climate change.
Regional context
Agriculture in the Cradle Coast region is characterised by innovation and adaptive thinking through networking and collaboration. Land managers are supported by research organisations, secondary processors, consultants and government agencies to improve productivity and market access. The State Government’s 2050 Agri-food Plan underscores the importance of agriculture’s future growth to the regional economy.
Capacity-building among farmers and land managers to utilise emerging technology and predictive tools will maximise the benefit these opportunities present. Markets for regional products are built on social preference for clean, safe, healthy and environmentally responsible food for a global market. Maintaining credibility in this marketplace requires well-planned approaches to environmental impacts and change.
Climate change and its associated impacts are likely to have profound impacts on agriculture, particularly in coastal areas of north-west Tasmania. More extreme weather events may impact livestock health and welfare, erosion and pasture growth.
Changes in hydrology influenced by climate change will strongly influence soil degradation processes. Changes to rainfall, temperature, frosts and ocean temperatures will impact on crop viability, time to crop maturity, crop yields, and the incidence and severity of weeds, pests and diseases.
Climate change adaptation and mitigation opportunities in agriculture include expansion of irrigation to provide greater reliability of soil moisture for crops, pasture and horticulture; planting of vineyards and other crops currently suited to warmer and drier climates; sequestration of carbon in existing extensive forests, new plantations and farm forestry; and encouraging the uptake of agricultural practices that maintain and improve ground cover, improving soil carbon storage. Enterprise suitability mapping recently developed in Tasmania can also be used to identify local opportunities for enterprise change and adaptation.