Crop stress and profits: how farmers are adapting their farming practices to stay afloat

As warmer temperatures due to climate change cause longer droughts and crop stress, Australian farmers are resorting to substituting crop varieties and relying on community support.

Mark Brown, farm manager at Purple Pear Farm, Anambah, in the Hunter Valley, said his farm copes with the increased crop stress by “not exploiting resources beyond what we need”.

Despite this strategy, Brown found that shortening growing seasons has forced him to substitute some of his crops with more resilient varieties.

“We grew for many years a Purple King Bean here … and then all of a sudden its season was really short, and it didn’t work out for us, and we’ve had to change to growing a lot of snake beans.”

The effects of climate change are not limited to the viability of crops. The average Australian farm is expected to suffer a 50 per cent decrease in profit compared to the 1950-2000 period under the most extreme climate scenario, according to researchers in a 2022 report by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences. Small-scale farms, which tend to have lower profit margins, will experience a greater change in profits, the research found.

To support struggling farmers, non-profit organisations such as Rural Aid have delivered fodder such as hay for livestock, provided financial support and offered educational funding grants for farmers interested in sustainable farming.

Yet, Rural Aid CEO John Warlters maintains that the rural charity does not solve the core issue of climate change but “give[s] people the support that they need to be able to continue” and that “providing some fodder for livestock is a means of time” until the farmers can support themselves.

Others, including sustainability consultant Naveed Saleh, believe climate change should be addressed on a broader regulatory and societal scale. He said that Australia needs to catch up with other OECD countries in enforcing greenhouse gas emission limits.

“Regulations at the moment that promote sustainability and reduce carbon emissions; we do have some available. However, they’re quite lenient at the moment.”

Part of the solution is introducing more efficient technology to farmers, said Saleh. These include new water irrigation systems and soil conservation techniques that have yet to be effectively rolled out in the farming industry.

“We’re not really innovative in the sense that we’re implementing sustainability strategies ourselves,” he said.

Still, Saleh advises against the commonly held pessimism toward climate change, insisting that climate change awareness amongst Millennials and Gen Z is key to its resolution.

“We could be very optimistic because a lot of us really care about the climate, and a lot of us really want to reduce climate change impacts,” he said.

“Public awareness … is definitely the most important thing of all of them because that’s when change in regulations actually will happen.”

Saleh also hoped the government will take advantage of Australia’s intense sun exposure to transition from relying on fossil fuels to renewable energy sources such as solar power.

Main image by Zaryab Ahamd.

*The Constructive Journalism in Communities (CJIC) project has been made possible by the philanthropic support of AGL for regional communities. UTS has maintained full editorial control and independent journalistic standards.