Agriculture

__Impacts __ Climate change is projected to have significant impacts on conditions affecting agriculture, including temperature, precipitation and glacial run-off.

Rising CO2 and temperatures would also have detrimental effects on crop yields, because a crops life span is based on the temperature, and rising temperatures would kill off crops at an alarmingly quicker rate.

Studies also show that rising CO2 is leading to reduced nitrogen in grazing plants like grass, which cows and sheep digest. It is reducing animal productivity because of the loss of microbes in their gut.

Reduced production in agriculture and forestry in south and east Australia is expected, with the national wheat yield expected to change by +10 to -50% by 2070 and grape yields expected to reduce by 2030. Climate change is also leading to a reduction in output potential (__Figure 9__).

__Figure 9 Change in the output potential of Agriculture around the world__

__Background Information__ Although climate change will have devastating effects on agriculture, agriculture is responsible for 7% of all world emissions, with cows producing 1.3% of all world emissions.

__Figure 10 Distribution of agriculture emissions in Australia. __ A concentration on winter crops could easily result in a consequent loss of spring crops, which means less crops for food and money. __ Solutions __

Emissions from power stations can be reduced by increased use of power from renewable sources of energy, such as wind or solar power. Both wind and solar power would work very well in Australia because Australia gets the most amount of sunlight in the world and because of our large coastline, harvesting wind would be easy.

Currently solar power accounts for 2% of our energy and wind power 1% and so there is much room for growth in these alternative energy sources. This would help to provide energy for agricultural needs without letting off CO2 emissions, which would therefore boost crop life and help animals. If more crops are adapted or genetically selected so that the crops we grow are more suited to changed conditions, we could improve agricultural outputs (__Table 2__). A lot of work is already being done by scientists in this area.

__Table 2 Agricultural solutions with and without adapation of crops __ (Billions)
 * Agricultural Solutions

|| Current

|| 2050 Climate change + moderate population growth

|| 2050 Climate change + High Population

||
 * Without Adaptation

|| <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"><span style="display: block; font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive; text-align: left;">4.6

|| <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"><span style="display: block; font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive; text-align: left;">2.3

|| <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"><span style="display: block; font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive; text-align: left;">- 0.1

||
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"><span style="display: block; font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive; text-align: left;">With adaptation (varieties + planting dates

|| <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"><span style="display: block; font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive; text-align: left;">4.6

|| <span style="display: block; font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive; text-align: left;">2.9 || <span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"><span style="display: block; font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive; text-align: left;">0.7

||