Communication Coordinator for the Managing Climate Variability Program Phase 5 |2022

Summary

Climate is the biggest individual driver of production variability in agriculture, and accounts for one-third to two-thirds of annual global crop yield variability. The Managing Climate Variability Program (MCV) them better forecasts, practical climate tools and products, as well as case studies of people who are incorporating climate risk information into their business decisions. The aim is to help primary producers and natural resource managers manage the risks, and exploit the opportunities, resulting from Australia’s variable and changing climate, by: improving the accuracy of forecasting on timeframes of value for primary production; providing climate information and tools for managing climate risk; and increasing knowledge and confidence to adopt climate risk management. MCV communications help to increase awareness of MCV and its outputs and promote the adoption of climate risk management practices on-farm through the Climate Kelpie website and other communication products. MCV communications are targeted at producers across the main industries represented by the project: livestock, grains, pulses and oilseeds, cotton, dairy and sugar.

Objectives

Eight communication objectives were developed for the project, which centred on the development and delivery of MCV branded communications to increase awareness, and promote the adoption of, climate risk management practices on-farm. Key outputs were: development of a communication plan ; attendance at Project Management Committee meetings (90 per cent attendance rate as per the meeting minutes); management of the Climate Kelpie website; quarterly publication of the Climate Kelpie News; weekly engagement through Climate Kelpie’s Twitter and Facebook channels; submission of milestone reports (all reports submitted on time and accepted).

Key findings

The Climate Kelpie webpage hosts a blog (Climate Kelpie News), links to tools developed under the MCV program, information on the climate champions program, regular climate updates and the BoM Climate Guides. Over the course of the project, the webpage attracted 90,432 unique visitors and 10,251 returning visitors (more than one session)
o delivered 202,014 page views
The Climate Kelpie News is a quarterly newsletter distributed to more than 16,000 emails through a GRDC distribution list. Thirteen editions of Climate Kelpie News were developed and distributed over the course of the project.
• Climate Kelpie tweeted weekly through the @ClimateKelpie twitter handle. Since its inception, @ClimateKelpie:
o attracted 810 followers, with an annual growth in followers of 12.5 per cent
o delivered 271120 impressions (exposure to potential viewers)
• Climate Kelpie’s Facebook presence delivered 166 ‘followers’ since 1 July 2019 (earliest accessible records),

Benefits to industry

Communications through the Climate Kelpie suite of communications products have served to increase awareness of the Managing Climate Variability project and its outputs. In particular, significant interest has been generated in climate drivers and the climate champions, indicating strong farmer interest in understanding and mitigating the impacts of climate change and climate variability.

MLA action

Published final report. Integrated report recommendations in climate science communications activities.

Future research

A content curation rather than the current content creation approach would increase the availability of potential, relevant content, and maximise the value of any communication investment in climate communications. This would however entail broadening the mandate of the communication channels beyond the MCV and FWFA projects to more general climate and climate research communications.

Farmer case studies, particularly those relating to potential mitigations/adaptations and practical actions to respond to climate change and climate variability, were very well received. It is strongly recommended that an increased focus should be placed on case study development and farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing for future climate communication projects.

New, relevant, timely content (for example the climate guides, the publication of Climate Kelpie News and the publication of the monthly Climate Kelpie Forecasts) significantly increased engagement and traffic through the various communication channels. It is strongly recommended that the frequency of Climate Kelpie News, and the publication of new content to the website, be increased. A content curation, rather than creation approach, would help to facilitate this in a cost-effective manner.