Confirmation of Candidature : Targeted User-Informed Climate Information and Decision-making for Sustainable Beef Production in Northern Australia and Tanzania

The significance of increasing risks associated with climate variability is threatening the current and future of global food and environmental security. There are rising trends in temperature and increased frequency and severity of drought, floods, and other climate extremes that negatively impact livestock production systems, including the globally managed grazing lands.  Adaptable strategies are required to sustain the productivity of such grazing lands and global food security. Climate services are useful in helping to provide options for adapting to and managing climate risks in the livestock sector. The effective engagement of climate services remains limited due to gaps between producers of such services and end-users. The Northern Australia Climate Program (NACP) is a climate service model that is implemented under research, development, and extension components. The program implements a holistic approach that incorporates four steps of effective engagement to facilitate practice change by incorporating climate information and associated tools into management decisions that are key for economic, environmental, and social outcomes in the Australian grazing industry. The successful implementation in Australia makes the NACP model to be considered applicable in other grazing systems around the globe. 

This study employs a qualitative case study design to understand how such a climate service model can be taken up and used by decision-makers to reduce climate risks. The first study will explore the perceptions of the Northern Australian cattle producers on climate information provided through such services and what impact it has had on them. The second study will explore the value of using Climate Mates embedded in the grazing industry and the different regions in Northern Australia, as an extension approach, to improving communication and engagement of climate services. The third study will explore how climate information is accessed in the communal grazing systems and how decisions are made, to understand how the NACP model could be translated and adapted to fit in other grazing landscapes such as those operating in Tanzania and some other parts of Northern Australia. The gathered data will be analyzed thematically, under the respective study.

For more information, please email the Graduate Research School or phone 0746 311088.