The 'Northern Australian Climate Project' (NACP)

Summary

The 'Northern Australian Climate Project' (NACP) will deliver innovative research, development and extension outcomes, through a number of partners, to improve the capacity of the red meat industry to manage drought and climate risk across northern Australia. This project will include collaboration between the Queensland Government and MDC to fund USQ for a range of research, development and extension projects to be delivered by USQ.
The NACP, based on a unique holistic integrated approach (involving a combination of innovative research, development and extension projects), is expected to drive a step-change in the level and sustainability of drought preparedness amongst red meat producers in the north. It will develop a suite of tools & frameworks to increase the rates of sustained adoption of research outputs and the associated technical and management recommendations.
The core RD&E projects have been identified through a detailed study conducted under the NACP Phase 1. These core RD&E projects include:
Research projects within the program will work with national and international climate modellers to improve seasonal forecasts for northern Australia; improve predictions of multi-year droughts through the use of general circulation models; and quantify the economic value of seasonal climate forecasting in the grazing industry.
Providing a climate program that is enabled by a vertically integrated institutional arrangement providing interaction between leading climate scientists, climate forecasters, climate applications specialists, climate advisers, extension and adoption practitioners, producers and policy makers will enable a transition from simply providing climate information (currently in place) to providing a climate service. This is expected to significantly improve understanding, trust and use of climate information in decision making.
Development projects will focus on producing a customised break of season index tailored for northern Australia to improve the capacity of station managers in grazing lands to proactively manage activities at the dry/wet season interface to reduce land degradation and boost productivity. A range of tools, which support grazing management decisions at the property level, will also be updated and developed to take advantage of opportunities presented by improved producer access to and use of digital technologies and networks.
Extension projects will focus on improving the knowledge and skills of producers across the grazing industry to support proactive management of climate variability which minimises exposure to environmental, profitability and productivity losses due to drought or drier than normal wet seasons, and maximises opportunities presented in above average seasons.