The 187,240 proprietors and partners and 311,148 employees in agriculture are on the frontline, facing the adverse effects of rising temperatures, reduced access to water, higher salinity and frequent and intense droughts and floods. Climate change is already having a severe impact on agricultural production, which will only aggravate in the coming decades. In short, the effects of climate change are very real and will affect people s everyday lives and livelihood, experts say.
Agriculture plays an important role in Australia s economy.
Principal crops grown here include wheat, barley, grain sorghum, maize, oats, and rice. Besides fruits, there are oilseeds, sugarcane, cotton, peanuts, tobacco, legumes and crops cut for hay. Climate change will cause greater competition between farmers for decreasing water supplies and productive lands, said Kathy Ridge, executive officer of the National Conservation Council of New South Wales, in south-eastern Australia. This will drive up costs of agricultural produce and put further stress on rivers and ground water systems supporting arable lands, she explained. The IPCC draft report forecasts temperature increases of 0.8- 3.9 degrees by 2050 and a 20 percent reduction in rainfall.