Issue 261 Drought and water scarcity

Making hay out of drought

As one farming couple discovered during the Millennium Drought, smart and evolving farm management is key to successfully exiting drought and preparing for future droughts.

Climate change and extreme events – quantifying the changing odds

The field of climate change event attribution research has emerged recently and can provide new insights into Australian climate extremes.

Regional climate guides put data in the hands of farmers

BoM, CSIRO and FarmLink have combined expertise to develop climate guides for Australia’s 56 NRM regions.

Unravelling the boom-bust nature of fodder in drought

Cut for hay or grow to grain? A pilot trial unlocks information about the fodder market during times of drought and aims to help farm finances and aid drought relief.

Overcoming the difficulty of breeding drought tolerant wheat

With a genome five times larger than the human genome, identifying what genes in wheat are responsible for what traits to build drought tolerance is difficult.

Yes, we can reach $100 billion ag target – here’s how

Australia needs to overcome a $40 billion shortfall in agricultural productivity over the next decade, but it’s not an impossible task.

Understanding water pressures

With many surface water storages, such as reservoirs, empty or critically low, groundwater (underground aquifers fed by rainfall and found in cracks or pores in rock) supplies are critical for many Australian communities and industries.