How climate change policy helps farmers

Drought is ravaging the land. Large swaths of eastern Australia are experiencing some of the worst seasons on record. Frosts have wiped out large areas of crops in Western Australia, southern New South Wales and Victoria. Hail has beaten crops into the ground in Queensland.

Tony Windsor.

The government is scrambling to be seen to be doing something meaningful for farmers, particularly in Queensland where traditional National voters are looking to desert in favour of minor parties, such as One Nation and Katter’s Australian Party. In some coastal seats in the state, Labor is also doing well. Hence the scene is set for the champion of the short-term, former agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce, to weave his web of utterances that join the drought, energy and climate scepticism into an electoral defence.

At the same time, the climate change debate proceeds at a crawl without any meaningful policy regarding the risk of increased drought and other weather events. This week a report, released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), declared that in order to keep warming within a relatively safe 1.5 degrees Celsius, global emissions will need to be cut by 45 per cent by 2030. Coal power will need to be phased out by 2050. The world has just 12 years, according to the IPCC, to avoid a climate change catastrophe. The deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, rejected the IPCC’s call for transition from coal, saying “some sort of report” won’t stop Australia using up its coal resources. Renewable energy, and the opportunities it offers regional Australia, is still being used as a political pawn.

Read the story by Tony Windsor from The Saturday Paper - “How climate change policy helps farmers.”

Severe dry to cut grain harvest in half

The severe dry that has smashed crops in NSW and southern Queensland is expected to slash total grain production this season and affect business conditions in farming communities where grain is a key industry, the nation's largest agribusiness has warned.

GrainCorp's underlying net profit surged in fiscal 2017 to $142 million.

Discussing GrainCorp's bumper full-year results for fiscal 2017, including an underlying net profit that nearly tripled to $142 million, managing director Mark Palmquist said this year's harvest would be "tremendously smaller", and in response the company would run a leaner harvest operation, with some sites to stay closed because of the lower volumes.

GrainCorp, an integrated grains handler, exporter and processor, said while the crop would be substantially smaller than last year, production would be skewed towards Victoria and southern NSW.

Rabobank senior grains and oilseeds analyst Cheryl Kalisch Gordon said Rabobank had forecast a "national drop of 41 percent from last year's record grain harvest. This is also down 19 percent on the five-year average prior to last year, which really puts the drop in context.

Read Darren Gray’s story in the Melbourne Age - “Severe dry to cut grain harvest in half.”

Vandana Shiva asks: 'Why should India face hunger and farmers commit suicide?'

T

Vandana Shiva.

here is no reason why India should face hunger and malnutrition and why our farmers should commit suicide. India is blessed with the most fertile soils in the world.

Our climate is so generous we can, in places, grow four crops in a year—compared to the industrialized west where sometimes only one crop is possible per year. We have the richest biodiversity of the world, both because of our diverse climates and because of the brilliance of our farmers as breeders. Our farmers are among the most hardworking, productive people in the world. Yet India faces an emergency, in our food and agricultural system. This emergency is man-made.

Read the EcoWatch story - “Vandana Shiva: There Is No Reason Why India Should Face Hunger and Farmers Should Commit Suicide.”