Offsetting agricultural emissions through reforestation
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CAED member, Professor Ross Kingwell, has been studying the obstacles and effectiveness of reforesting Western Australian farmland.
The study used scenario analysis to examine agricultural emissions and their abatement via reforestation in south-western Australia under projected climate change.
Scenario analyses that consider different degrees of climate change impacts and different emission trajectories reveal that on balance, despite the likelihood of agricultural emissions being reduced in coming decades, the impact of projected adverse climate change on tree growth and tree survival means that the cost of achieving agricultural carbon neutrality via reforestation will increase in the study region of south-western Australia.
The more likely scenarios reveal the real cost of achieving carbon neutrality will not greatly increase relative to the region’s gross value of agricultural production.
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Farmers agree they should do more herbicide resistance testing
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Testing weeds for herbicide resistance is an important tool in weed management, yet it is underutilised by many grain farmers.
The Grains Research & Development Corporation (GRDC) has recently invested with the Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (AHRI) team targeting the sampling of problem weed populations on farms to be tested against both single and combinations of herbicides.
This investment also partnered with UWA and CSIRO researchers to design and conduct a survey to identify farmers’ and agronomists’ perception of each sample herbicide resistance status. Each herbicide resistance test result was compared to each farmers perception of the resistance status. Agronomists were asked about their perception of each farm’s resistance status.
The results clearly showed that:
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most farmers relied on visual survival of weeds to inform their perception of herbicide resistance status;
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farmers often overestimated their resistance status of some herbicides, and this potentially limited their use of certain effective herbicides;
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farmers were more likely to underestimate the resistance status of wild radish to important broadleaf herbicides;
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often the value of having accurate information on weed resistance status is being able to use cheaper chemicals for longer by knowing susceptibility status;
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barriers to adopting more resistance testing and ideas for making testing easier for farmers were brainstormed.
After the survey and analysis of the results, the researchers conducted a series of workshops with farmers and agronomists to present the findings on the resistance test results, and the comparison between actual test result and farmers perception. The workshops were a good way to build understanding on the issue of herbicide behaviour and testing with the farmers.
“We probably overestimate our amount of herbicide resistance. Testing is the key to knowing.” [Farmer]
"(A benefit of the workshop is that) the information is coming straight from the research team… I think it sinks in better.” [Farmer]
Through these workshop discussions it became evident that most farmers agreed more resistance testing was needed in future.
“I think this project could not have had a greater impact. Credit to GRDC to have identified the need for behavioural economists together with the herbicide resistance research component” [Dr Roberto Busi, Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative]
Publications are currently being prepared.
For more information contact:
Project Leader, Dr Roberto Busi at roberto.busi@uwa.edu.au
CAED member, Dr Fiona Dempster at fiona.dempster@uwa.edu.au
 
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Journal articles
Pannell, D.J. and Rogers, A.A. (2022). Agriculture and the environment: Policy approaches in Australia and New Zealand, Reviews of Environmental Economics and Policy. Online (ahead of print) 26 January, 2022. Link.
Brown, P.R., et al. (2021). Application of Innovation Platforms to catalyse adoption of conservation agriculture practices in South Asia, International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability. Link.
Dempster, F, Davies, S, Gazey, C, Pia Piggott, P & Kragt, M (2021). Will regenerative agriculture disrupt industry practice? Farm Policy Journal, Australian Farm Institute. Link.
Dixon, J.M., et al. (2021). Response and resilience of Asian agrifood systems to COVID-19: An assessment across twenty-five countries and four regional farming and food systems, Agricultural Systems 193 (October), Link.
Kragt, M.E., Burton, R., Zahl-Thanem, A. and Otte, P.P. (2021). Farmers’ interest in crowdfunding to finance climate change mitigation practices, Journal of Cleaner Production. 321, 128967 Link.
Montes de Oca Munguia, O., Pannell, D.J. and Llewellyn, R. (2021). Understanding the adoption of innovations in agriculture: A review of selected conceptual models, Agronomy 11, 139. Link.
Powell, J.W., Welsh, J.M., Pannell, D. and Kingwell, R. (2021). Factors influencing Australian sugarcane irrigators’ adoption of solar photovoltaic systems for water pumping, Cleaner Engineering and Technology Volume 4, October 2021, 100248. Link.
Walsh, A. and Kingwell, R (2021). The Future of Glyphosate in Australian Agriculture? Australasian Agribusiness Review 2021, Volume 29, Paper 4. ISSN: 2209-6612. Link
View more publications
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Books and Chapters
Kingwell, R. (2022). Sustainability Challenges in Agriculture and Food Production, Chapter 4. In (Eds: M. John and J. Segalas) Education for a Sustainable Future - Critical content, concepts and context, Taylor Francis.
Industry Reports
Tascon, A., Dempster, F., Kragt, M. (2021). Spatial Analysis of Farm Animal Waste in Australia. University of Western Australia. The University of Western Australia. Link.
Conference Papers
M.E. Kragt, M.E., Dempster, F., Tascon, A. & Jenkins, S. (2021). Valuing the costs of waste management in the pork industry. 2021 Conference of the Australasian Pig Science Association: APSA, 15-18 Nov 2021, Brisbane Australia.
Rola-Rubzen, M.F. (2021). Impact of Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (CASI) Technologies among Men and Women Farmers in the Eastern Gangetic Plains. International e-conference on economic transformation, agriculture and rural development (ICETRA), 29-30 Nov 2021, Bogor, Indonesia.
Rola-Rubzen, M.F., Vuong, H.T., Doll, C. and Rollins, C. (2021). Gender and Rural transformation: A Systematic Review. International e-conference on economic transformation, agriculture and rural development (ICETRA), 29-30 Nov 2021, Bogor, Indonesia.
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