Posted by Rita Mu
Researchers at the University of Sydney have been awarded a $250,000 grant to help farmers across the country to adapt to the effects of climate change.
Agriculture and climate change specialist, Associate Professor Greg Hertzler, and his team will use the funds from the Adaptation Research Grant to determine the thresholds at which farmers across the country will need to transform their operations in response to climate change.
"Our new method allows us to think objectively about decisions in our complex, dynamic and nonlinear world, subject to thresholds and risks of irreversible damage,” Hertzler explained.
"Real options can be applied to agriculture undergoing climate change in two ways. The first way is a framework for communication among producers and researchers. The second way translates the adaptive decisions of producers into mathematical models and solves for the expected transformation of complex systems.
"In [our] project, we use real options to communicate with producers who are managing wheat dominated agricultural systems. From this knowledge, we model how they may choose to transform the industry as the climate changes."
Hertzler said the project would assess the implications for stranded assets, new technologies and the resilience of agriculture undergoing climate change.
Image: Sydney.edu.au