Climate tools available for the Territory’s primary producers

Region: Greater Darwin, Katherine Region, Barkly Region, Central Australia | Topic: Livestock, Horticulture
May 2022 | by James Christian, Manager Agribusiness Development.

The Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund has 2 key climate tools designed to help primary producers prepare for the future and have been developed with input from Territory producers, facilitated by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade.

The Climate Services for Agriculture (CSA) prototype, and the Drought Resilience Self-Assessment Tool (DR.SAT) make national climate information more accessible and useful for farmers, industry, and rural and regional communities in the Territory.

DR.SAT was launched by the Future Drought Fund to give farmers more options to thrive despite drought and a changing climate.

NT Rural Review readers are encouraged to explore this free tool, which is packed with features like:

  • the ability to input details about your farm and see satellite images of historic and current condition (updated roughly every 6 days)
  • climate projections for your property and region up to 2050
  • simple questions to assess your resilience – your land condition, financial, and your physical and mental wellbeing
  • options for the future with links to resources to support you to adapt and thrive

You can find DR.SAT at: www.drsat.com.au

The updated Climate Services for Agriculture (CSA) prototype is also available to help primary producers prepare for the future. You can find more in depth information on this service later in this edition.

The CSA platform was developed through collaboration by the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO, and it makes climate information more accessible and useful for those who need to access it, including the Territory agriculture and agribusiness sectors.

The platform aims to build resilience within communities by enabling them to anticipate what local climates might look like in the future, how the future climate could impact production of key commodities, and what can be done to prepare across the NT.

The platform shows historical climate averages between 1961 and 1990, recent climate data from 1991 to 2020, as well as climate projections for 2030, 2050 and 2070 (based on different emissions scenarios). All information is relevant to users' locations, with national coverage at a 5 km squared scale.

Available data includes temperature, rainfall, heat and frost risk, seasonal forecasts as well as specific information for commodities such as beef, sheep, wheat, almonds, apples, barley, canola, and lupins. More commodities will be added in the future.

To access the CSA tool, navigate your browser to https://climateservicesforag.indraweb.io/

More information

The Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund and the Territory context can be found at: https://industry.nt.gov.au/industries/primary-industry/agriculture/agricultural-developments/future-drought-fund

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