Sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) is central to the development of climate-resilient production systems in the Pacific Island Countries. As part of a project for this purpose, we evaluated the effects of SAI practices on physical soil properties in cropping systems of Samoa and Tonga. The study focused specifically on soil moisture levels, which we measured using time-domain reflectometry. After the establishment of a yam cropping trial in Tonga, soil moisture levels in November 2023 were 14% higher under mulching, compared to weedicide treatments (P < 0.001). At the second harvest in June 2024, soil moisture levels under mulching were 60% higher than in the weedicide treatments (P < 0.001), supporting the hypothesis that mulching enhances soil moisture retention. Low soil moisture levels (16%) in weeded treatments indicated incipient drought stress. Non-tilled treatments under mulching had 16% higher soil moisture than tilled treatments (P < 0.01). Intercropping also interacted with tilled treatments; a significant difference in soil moisture was observed between tilled and non-tilled treatments in non-intercropped plots but not in intercropped plots, suggesting that intercropping mitigates soil water loss in tilled systems. They indicate that SAI practices such as mulching enhance soil physical properties, as demonstrated here by soil moisture levels, thus boosting climate resilience in Pacific farming systems.

Production of food and fibre from extensive livestock farming is an important industry worldwide. Increasing scrutiny of its social licence to operate encompasses wide-ranging concerns, including environmental impact and livestock welfare. Good welfare management improves production, enhances drought resilience and demonstrates responsible practices. This research examines the potential to inform the debate by integrating information from publicly available open data sets on welfare elements. Taking the use-cases of extensive beef-cattle and sheep farming in Australia, we test whether the evidential base for animal welfare outcomes can be managed and verified without using Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) methods such as sensors and direct measurements. Querying public data catalogues, we sourced 53 public open datasets and demonstrate that environmental animal welfare hazards can be mapped in a proof of concept geospatial portal. However, due to the interdependency of animal welfare hazards and their variable urgency with time and place, limitations were found with respect to data resolution, spatial and temporal coverage, and a dearth of livestock disease datasets. These limitations will need to improve before the welfare maps can used with confidence on a national scale. To address the lack of accessible livestock health datasets, we are collating existing and collecting new data from surveillance of parasitic diseases to develop into publicly available and FAIR datasets.

Impacts of droughts to plant growth are closely linked to the availability of the finite resource, soil water. The amount of water available for plant uptake is dependent on pore size distribution, which itself is mainly affected by texture and degree of compaction. Very clayey or sandy soils have a much lower plant available water capacity (PAWC) than loamy soils. Adding an additional substrate to soil will affect the pore size distribution and hence PAWC. A pure, stable carbon source (brown coal) was tested as a potential ameliorant to improve properties of a subsoil clay. A glasshouse trial was carried out by mixing five different coal concentrations (0, 2, 5, 10, 20%) to the clay substrate placed in 40 litre test boxes. Following consolidation, samples were taken to test for hydrological and mechanical parameters. A replicate set of this experiment was seeded with grass and following establishment, the grass was exposed to drought conditions in the glasshouse and the state of drying of the grass quantified using its state of greenness.
The results showed that the PAWC decreased for the low coal concentration coal added, while it increased substantially (7%) for the two highest concentrations (10, 20%). The plant drought stress test showed, that the grass survived drought conditions longer with higher coal concentrations compared to the control.
It was deducted that coal can be a very useful ameliorant to improve long term drought resilience of soils.

Drought significantly affects lentil production by lowering yield and altering disease severity. This study explores the interactions between drought and disease severity in lentils (Lens culinaris), focusing on the key pathogen Ascochyta lentis, responsible for ascochyta blight. A controlled growth chamber study assessed varying moisture regimes, from no drought -D0 to extreme drought -D5, on disease progression in two lentil genotypes, ILL6002-G1 and ILL7537-G2. Findings indicated that drought and disease interactions vary among the genotypes due to their genetic makeup, leading to combined stress effects. The drought-sensitive G2 genotype, though disease-resistant, exhibited increased disease susceptibility under severe drought, showing symptoms compared to other scenarios where it remained symptom-free. Conversely, the drought-tolerant G1 genotype, which is disease-susceptible, showed decreased disease symptoms as drought intensified, with severity decreasing from 67.78%-D0 to 24.00%-D5. Available moisture changes may facilitate pathogen invasion in drought-sensitive genotypes, while drought-tolerant genotypes displayed reduced symptoms under extreme drought. These findings emphasise the necessity for studies on stress combinations rather than individual stresses to enhance lentil resilience against climate change. Understanding the interplay of abiotic and biotic stresses can improve breeding and agronomic practices supporting lentil production amid climate variability.

Drought resilience is critical in sustaining lentil production, particularly in regions prone to water scarcity. While Si supplementation improves above-ground drought tolerance in lentils, its impact on root nodule metabolism remains underexplored. Drought impairs nitrogen (N) fixation by disrupting nodule formation, nitrogenase activity, and carbon (C) supply; this study explores how Si affects C-N dynamics in nodules. A glasshouse experiment tested selected lentil genotypes under moderate and severe stress conditions with and without Si. Biochemical and enzymatic parameters linked to nodule metabolism were analysed. Silicon enhanced drought resilience by improving nodule C-N metabolism (Variance 85.74%; P≤0.05). It boosted the activity of key N assimilating enzymes - nitrogenase, nitrite and nitrate reductase - in stressed plants (P≤0.001). Silicon reduced the activity of sucrose synthase and invertase, helping regulate C partitioning and preventing metabolic imbalances under drought. It also facilitated ammonia assimilation by significantly increasing the activity of glutamate synthetase, glutamate synthase, and glutamate dehydrogenase. A strong correlation (r=0.91–0.98) was observed between nodule number, N fixation efficiency and harvest index. These findings demonstrate that Si enhances drought resilience by optimising nodule function and metabolic balance, making it a valuable strategy for improving crop productivity and sustainability in drought-prone regions.

Southwestern Australia (SWA) is one of only 2 global biodiversity hotspots in Australia. Its highly endemic biodiversity has been exposed to fifty years of climatic drying caused by global warming, intensifying the existential threat to freshwater ecosystems. Drying is extirpating invertebrate species in streams and lakes and fragmenting populations. During dry periods, most perennial freshwater in the landscape is in farm dams (FD). Conventionally, FD are believed to be eutrophic, low in DO, a haven for invasive species, lack native plants and have low biodiversity. We sampled 97 FD and 38 natural lakes and rivers. In spring 2023, only 13% of natural sites and 9% of FD were eutrophic. Many FD supported native plants, invertebrates and frogs at richnesses comparable to or higher than natural waterbodies. Charophytes were diverse and native submerged plants were present in many perennial FD, associated with high invertebrate diversity. All endemic frog species that oviposit in water plus several burrow-breeding frog species used FD for breeding and tadpole growth. Species not supported by FD were mainly flow-dependent stream-dwelling species such as suspension-feeders and some stream-obligate dragonflies, amphipods and Leptophlebiidae. FD are already providing dry season refuges for endemic freshwater species in SWA. The challenge now is to maximize their capacity to act as refuges for native species to underpin resilience of the freshwater flora and fauna.

A systematic approach to decision-making has long been recognised as a critical element in effective crisis management and business resilience, which is often reflected through the adoption of the Planning, Preparation, Response and Recovery (PPRR) framework. A key factor in the adoption of this approach is the marked reduction of stress relating to key decisions, as a consequence of the confidence and comfort associated with good planning and strong preparation. While the approach is well regarded in the context of rapid onset disaster impacts (storms, fires, floods, etc), it is less well suited to events such as drought, which is a ‘creeping’ event with its impacts geographically uncertain and manifesting incrementally. Given the diversity of farm operations and aspirations this added complexity suggests a more nuanced approach is required for the application of the business resilience principles to the management of drought impacts on farm businesses. The Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub (Victoria Drought Hub) has been working with its partners to translate business resilience principles into a framework and language that is meaningful in the context of on-farm decision-making and response. Conceptualising drought through the lens of the four stages of drought (Good Times, Uncertain period, Drought period and Recovery) we have translated the PPRR framework into a readily actionable planning prompt that encourages land holders to reflect on the impacts of drought on their business and identify key measures to mitigate these impacts. Importantly, it encourages a holistic consideration of on-farm activities in the context of work done one the business, in the business and on wellbeing.

In 2022-23, the NCFH led a disaster recovery program for Victorian farmers, including support for 60 farming community events to promote mental health and wellbeing. NCFH provided expertise about how community events can help reduce stigma and increase discussion on proactive ways to manage and protect wellbeing. Communities often approached this by engaging a guest speaker, mental health professional or panel of individuals with lived experience of navigating tough times on the land. Events focused on social connection and recognising when and how to seek assistance from personal networks or health professionals to support the recovery journey.
Building on this program in 2024, the NCFH co-designed (with 6 partner organisations) a set of best practice guidelines helping individuals and groups plan farming community events with a mental health focus. The guidelines provide the knowledge, resources and support needed to organise safe and effective events and reflect the recommendations described in Presentation 1.
Since their release in early 2025, Tackling the Tough Topics has been acknowledged as a helpful tool to promote positive messaging around farmer mental health and support wellbeing, with further evidence currently being collected through a pilot evaluation (to be shared as part of this presentation).
https://farmerhealth.org.au/tackling-the-tough-topics-a-step-by-step-guide-to-plan-mental-health-and-wellbeing-events-in-farming-communities

Having spent nearly half of the 21st century in drought, Wimmera Southern Mallee people know drought’s problems and, through experience, have adapted, learned and created local solutions.
To prepare for the next ones, we've drawn on past experience and worked with governments, researchers and 100s of people to co-design and action 11 innovative social, economic, agricultural, and environmental resilience-building projects. We’ve constantly fed back to the communities, not been afraid to change direction with new information and insights and regularly partnered with stakeholders and like-minded groups to achieve optimum outcomes.
We analysed houses in five towns for their suitability to future climate and investigated alternative solutions. We partnered with five shires to identify priority green spaces which will provide an oasis when the region next turns to dust. We helped young migrants to understand and navigate drought and re-watered a culturally significant First Nations' billabong.
We researched and responded to businesses’ slow uptake on critical supports and engaged experts to research wind farms’ impacts on agricultural enterprises. We broadened understanding and uptake of data from a regional weather station network and trained dozens of people to lead for change. We created a partnership to help embed resilience building into a rural community and celebrated stories of our resilience every day, to create an even stronger tomorrow.
Community resilience building is ongoing and these foundational projects have helped embed this process into our region’s psyche and systems so that the work continues before, during and after the many future droughts we will undoubtedly face.

Drought preparedness at the farm scale requires systematic approaches that unravel the complexity and interconnectedness of natural systems while establishing clear links between ecosystem services and farm productivity. It also requires translating this complex understanding into practical, measurable metrics for ongoing monitoring, especially during drought periods. However, monitoring soil functioning and health, crucial assets in farming systems, is hindered by limited understanding of how soil microbial communities interact with their physicochemical environment and respond to different management practices. This baseline understanding is vital for predicting soil community responses to climatic variability and drought.

We are using a landscape-level approach, analysing 15 farms across northwest Victoria, to explore general trends in microbial traits relating to soil physicochemical properties. By identifying microbial traits that correlate with known physicochemical proxies for soil functioning, we aim to determine key bioindicators of soil health that can inform decision-making for sustainable land management across agroecosystems. This fundamental understanding of how the soil environment creates different ecologies will be the first step towards incorporating soil biology into broader management practices both in agriculture and restoration efforts.

Agriculture contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, soil degradation, desertification, and biodiversity loss. Human activity has transformed 70% of the Earth’s land, leading to “environmental degradation and contributing significantly to global warming” (UN, 2022). As agriculture is a driver and a victim of climate change, action is needed for mitigation, adaptation and resilience. Conventional agriculture (CA), the dominant global food production system, is a primary contributor to these issues. Reforming food systems is vital to achieving the UNs Sustainable Development Goals. As UNCCD Executive Secretary stated: “Investing in large-scale land restoration to combat desertification, soil erosion, and loss of agricultural production is a win-win solution. It is a win for the environment. It is a win for the climate. It is a win for the economy and for the livelihoods of local communities.” Regenerative agriculture (RA) is framed as the antithesis of CA and solution to these challenges. However, RA lacks a clear definition. This hinders analysis of its capacity across different climates, ecosystems, and socio-economic contexts. It leaves RA vulnerable to exploitation for the greenwashing of farming practices. This paper examines RA and the need for a definition. A framework is essential to align scientific inquiry with practical implementation, ensuring that RA evolves into a real climate adaptation strategy rather than a slogan masking business-as-usual farming practices.

This paper discusses the results and possible implications of a reader study that investigated how readers respond to works of Australian ecofiction that portray drought and the nonhuman (such as animals and plants) in a local Australian context. This study required participants who had read at least one of six selected works of Australian ecofiction to respond to open-ended, qualitative questions about the representation of drought, flood and the nonhuman in the selected texts. This paper will focus on the results that relate specifically to drought-related responses and texts, with a particular emphasis on two Australian crime novels, Jane Harper’s The Dry (2016) and Chris Hammer’s Scrublands (2018), which are largely concerned with the relationship between drought and crime. Different portrayals of rural communities and landscapes in the crime texts evoked strong responses from readers regarding their own relationships with place and how drought affects human and environmental wellbeing. The work presented in this paper is largely exploratory in nature, utilising the results of the reader response survey alongside my own close readings to provide a pathway to future researchers wanting to understand how audiences are influenced by fictional works that engage with drought.

MADE's Future Drought Fund project sought to accelerate adoption of anaerobic digestate (AD) – based biofertilisers to deliver enduring improvements in soil health. Building soil water holding capacity, nutrient reserves and carbon will improve agricultural productivity and profitability enhancing environmental, economic and social drought resilience for Australian farmers and communities. Research was undertaken into effectiveness of biofertilisers based on anaerobic digestate made from a mix of agricultural waste feedstocks. Griffith University completed laboratory pot testing of different blends with comparison against a control and under different conditions. The pot testing findings were then translated into paddock trials at five farms in western/central Victoria using a wheat cultivar. Each trial site included a traditional / business as usual control compared to five different biofertiliser blend interventions with one including digestate.
Pot testing results indicated that digestate-based biofertilisers significantly increased the period of time a plant survived when simulated drought conditions compared to a control.
Paddock trials concluded in Dec 24. Extensive sampling and laboratory testing was undertaken during the growing season and at harvest. Tests included, plant biometrics, SAP analysis, soil microbiome analysis, soil DNA, soil carbon emissions, and yield metrics. Analysis is underway and will be completed by June 2025. Initial findings indicate positive soil, plant and drought resilience outcomes.

There is much discussion about whether the decrease in public extension services is limiting the adoption of agricultural practices or whether these roles are being transferred to the private sector. However, this discussion ignores the question of how well extension is being delivered.
This paper will use the adoption of soil management practices in the state of Victoria to discuss how the planning of agricultural extension delivery needs to focus more on the psychological drivers that underlie farmer adoption. Emphasis in extension delivery has been to develop the economic justification for a practice, and although undoubtedly very important, it is believed by many that the key soil issues faced by Victorian farmers have not significantly changed over the past decades. This has led some observers to claim that it is the extension approach that has failed.
This paper discusses when economic justification is required for practice change, and how can such data be more impactful. The paper will also propose that many management practices can be classified differently, as either being based on a stochastic foundation, or a theoretical/belief rationale. It is argued that such practices require a different set of extension tools, and importantly, a different extension funding model. It is suggested that many of the practices recommended for drought resilience fall into these new categories and that adoption will be accelerated if funding agencies recognise these differences.

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the international and Australian evidence around the social impacts of drought and factors which may mitigate the adverse social impacts. The paper explores the factors which make a community more resilient to the social impacts of drought, and those which make a community more vulnerable to drought and provides insights into ways of measuring drought-related social impact resilience and vulnerability. The paper examines drought social impact risk management involving risk reduction (prevention, mitigation, preparation), disaster management (alert, response), and recovery and adaptation (rehabilitation).

Droughts can impose significant economic impacts to regional economies, yet quantifying their true costs remains a challenge. This study examines the economic impacts of the 2017–2020 drought in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, using time series analysis and a Synthetic Control Methodology (SCM) to formulate counterfactual scenarios. Our analysis highlights substantial economic losses for the agricultural sector and at the regional level. In the Tamworth region (a key agricultural region in NSW), farm income stagnated post-2017, with cumulative projected losses of billions of dollars by 2035 in contrast to an unaffected-by-drought counterfactual scenario. We find that the North West region experienced an 80% loss in productivity (cash per unit of labour), whereas the Central West and Riverina regions demonstrated greater resilience, recovering by 2022.
These results emphasise the long-term nature of the drought’s economic effects, extending beyond the immediate rainfall deficit, with opportunity costs translating into lower growth prospects. This study provides critical insights for policymakers, emphasising the need for region-specific adaptation strategies that enhance resilience. By integrating forecasting and counterfactual analysis, this research offers a robust framework for assessing drought-related disruptions and informing targeted policy interventions to mitigate future economic shocks.

Background: Farmers face barriers accessing mental health services and investing time maintaining or improving their wellbeing. The Vocal Locals social network campaign (ifarmwell initiative) aims to promote conversations about wellbeing and challenge attitudes and behaviours contributing to farmers’ poor mental health.
Methods: The campaign ran in Loxton SA in 2022. 10 community members (8 farmers) became Vocal Locals and were supported to share ‘calls-to-action’ encouraging their social networks to engage in wellbeing-promoting activities. A broader communications campaign reinforced key messages and amplified Vocal Locals’ activities in the community. Intrapersonal and community-level impacts were evaluated pre/post campaign among Vocal Locals & community members.
Results: Pre to post, Vocal Locals reported significantly lower distress, and higher mental wellbeing, mental health knowledge, and confidence helping someone in distress. Community members reported significantly more wellbeing-related conversations, more comfort speaking to others about mental health and engaging more in wellbeing activities.
Conclusions: The Vocal Locals campaign shows how science and community can come together to achieve meaningful outcomes. It may serve as a model for others to challenge attitudinal/knowledge-related barriers to help-seeking and improve engagement in wellbeing-promoting activities in hard-to-reach communities.

Droughts are significant disturbances to aquatic ecosystems, altering the relationships among various threats. While some areas have shown partial recovery from events like the millennium drought, the overall impact remains profound. Droughts not only lead to habitat loss but also interact with other threats such as anoxic blackwater and blue-green algal blooms. Historically, long-lived species needed to recruit only a few times over multiple decades. However, with the increasing frequency and severity of droughts, these interactions have become more complex, affecting recruitment opportunities and leading to opaque interactions among flow regulation and climate change. Understanding these interactions will be important in managing the impacts of drought on aquatic ecosystems

Today, droughts caused by climate change are effectively observed in some parts of the world. Effective management of such droughts requires a resilience model based on both prediction and response components. This article is a research to identify the mechanisms of using AI in resilience studies in drought. The results of this research, in the form of an analog model, determine the function of AI in resilience in droughts caused by climate change.

Fiji’s disaster communication is largely shaped by responses to sudden-onset events like cyclones, where immediate information and rapid emergency responses are critical. In contrast, slow-onset disasters like droughts unfold gradually, requiring adaptive and long-term communication strategies to build community resilience, especially social capital, and connection. This paper explores how disaster communication practices – developed primarily for rapid-onset hazards – can be adapted to address the challenges of droughts. Interviews with Fijian community leaders shed light on their diverse roles as grassroots disaster communicators and revealed concerns that disaster preparedness is often assumed to be the sole responsibility of older generations. This misconception can impede youth engagement, weakening community-based drought adaptation measures. To address this, it is vital to leverage trusted communication networks, (notably) community leaders, to ensure that drought resilience messages are effectively communicated and acted upon. Additionally, the research found that social media can engage youth as digital knowledge brokers, but these tools should complement, rather than replace, traditional communication methods, which remain highly valued in the Fijian culture. This research calls for a balanced integration of digital and traditional communication approaches to design more inclusive and culturally relevant strategies suited for longer, slower crises like droughts.

Shallow soils make crops susceptible to dry seasons. Many cropped soils in eastern Australia are shallow with physical and chemical constraints to deeper water infiltration, root growth and plant access to sub-soil moisture and nutrients. Although conservation farming practices have often arrested the decline in soil organic matter (SOM) in the upper soil, levels of organic matter on cropping land typically remain critically low, and intensification of cropping practices is often resulting in a decline in SOM and associated problems deeper down the soil profile. Composts have a range of physical, chemical and biological attributes that can improve soil porosity, SOM levels, and nutrient and water availability. Compost have a high concentration of more persistent SOM, and can also address other constraints. Not all composts are the same, and not all soils will respond strongly to composts. This paper summarises work undertaken by Federation University's Future Regions Research Centre on the use of compost and other soil amendments with strategic tillage to promote deeper and stronger root growth and drought resilience. It will draw on the results from R&D trials in central Victoria and Gippsland and a review of the attributes of different compost products. The paper will also discuss the geographic areas and cropping systems where compost use may be profitable based on soil types, climate and potential yield response.

In a changing weather and climate conditions, we examined the opportunities to add value to locally produced agricultural commodities and drive economic diversification and job creation in the Grampians and Loddon-Mallee regions to cope with climatic and economic challenges.
Our methodology was twofold: (a) a desktop review and analysis of existing data, information, research, and literature relating to socioeconomic conditions and business and industry profile in these two regional areas, and (b) discussions with the stakeholders. Major industries in both regions are in agriculture and are the sources of key employment. Majority of the businesses in the regions are engaged in farming related activities. There is volatility in global markets and the regions are highly exposed to climate variability. There is a need for value-adding through branding, packaging, and marketing locally grown products.

There is a need to (a) identify regional and local strengths, understand the environment and its features very well including: land, soil, and climate conditions for selected crops, water availability, access to electricity, labour availability and transport and digital connectivity. The potential and viability of food precincts could be investigated. They could focus on food, manufacturing, waste management or regional facilities, which would add value to the existing primary commodity production.

The purpose of this study was to identify modifiable psychological and behavioural coping strategies associated with low levels of psychological distress, (independent of stable personality and demographic factors), in a sample of farmers who reported being exposed to a recent stressful event, during an extended drought.
309 South Australian, drought-affected farmers completed surveys. Only those who reported experiencing a stressful event in the past month were included in the analyses (n=175,65.06%). Participants ranged in age from 24-85years, 40% female. Distress was measured using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, coping strategies were measured using a situational version of the COPE inventory, and five personality factors (extraversion, neuroticism, openness, conscientiousness and agreeableness) were assessed using the Quickscales-R.
Distress was elevated among individuals reporting higher neuroticism and behavioural disengagement, and lower in individuals reporting greater use of acceptance. This means that farmers recently exposed to a significant stressor, who used acceptance as a coping strategy, did not engage in behavioural disengagement and/or scored low on neuroticism, were least likely to experience distress. Given the stability of personality factors, interventions that foster farmers' use of acceptance and prevent behavioural disengagement as coping strategies are likely to assist them with the management of future stressors, particularly in times of drought. How these findings have been used to develop the www.ifarmwell.com.au online, free, farmer-focused psychological intervention (to foster use of these adaptive coping strategies) will be discussed.

This paper will explore the opportunities and challenges associated with use of irrigation as a drought resilience tool on ‘difficult’ soils in Tasmania. In Tasmania irrigation development is promoted as a means of ‘drought proofing’, however around half of the new irrigation districts have been developed on low carbon, low infiltration rate, texture contrast soils. These soils are notoriously difficult to ‘wetup’, farmers report these issues in terms of not being able to apply enough irrigation, droughty soils in elevated locations, waterlogging in low lying areas, and the occurrence of the ‘Green Drought’ in which growers are not able to apply sufficient irrigation to keep pasture actively growing. Opportunity exists to improve drought resilience through more effective and efficient irrigation. Recently, the Tasmanian State government has invested $1.6 M to better understand the value of irrigation to Tasmania, and improve the return from irrigation via improved irrigation effectiveness and efficiency. In addition, the Tas Farm Innovation Hub has funded a 12 month Water Use Efficiency extension and engagement project delivered by Pinion Advisory, whilst the SoilCRC is funding TIA (UTAS) to develop a range of new soil sensors to assist growers to make data based soil and irrigation decisions.

The resilience of soils to drought can be improved by (i) creating and preserving large (>100um) surface connected pores that increase the proportion of rainfall and irrigation that enters the soil profile, and by (ii) increasing the proportion and connectivity of pores between 5um to 0.2um that supply moisture during drought conditions. This presentation will (i) briefly explain the science behind making soils more drought resilient, (ii) detail how soil ‘droughtiness’ can measured, (iii) review trial data on management interventions to modify soil ‘droughtiness’, and (iv) lament the national loss of capacity in soil physics.

This Gippsland Drought Resilience Plan for Gippsland (the Plan) seeks to facilitate a cohesive and coordinated approach to building community drought resilience. The Plan includes a collectively agreed framework (the Framework) for building: (i) economic resilience for an innovative and profitable agricultural sector, (ii) environmental resilience for sustainable and improved functioning of farming landscape, and (iii) social resilience for resourceful and adaptable communities. The long-term objectives of the Plan are to: (i) create stronger connectedness and greater social capital within Gippsland communities, contributing to wellbeing and security, (ii) empower Gippsland communities to implement economically transformative activities that improve their resilience to drought, and (iii) support more Gippsland landholders to adopt holistic management approaches to improve the natural resource base for long term productivity and landscape health.

Like any imperfect prediction system, drought warning will include a proportion of false alarms and failures to warn. Decisions that use this information will, with hindsight, be judged to be too cautious or too optimistic.

A statement about a single future (it will be dry) is much easier to communicate and use in decision making than information about multiple futures (it could be wetter than normal, around normal or dry, but the odds of being dry are increased). Communication between the forecast and the farmer is imperfect and increasingly complex. Although there is much about human decision making that is impressive, there are consistent examples of mistakes, especially when we are stressed and busy.

We will describe our experience as a climate applications scientist and a farmer holding workshops with the Grains RDC project RiskWi$e and the SA Drought Hub in 2023. 24 and 25. We included discussion of seasonal forecasts and climate change information MyClimateView.

We argue that a simple framework called fast graphs for slow thinking encourage growers to budget across deciles of growing season rainfall and are a powerful statement of risk and return. An additional benefit of this framework is that we can incorporate revised probabilities from a seasonal forecast or climate change projections. This shifts the discussion from the failures of prediction to a conversation about the consequences of being too cautious and too optimistic.

The UK climate scientist, Ed Hawkins, has received numerous awards for the climate stripes. We found that colouring monthly climate from 1900 to present with cool colours for wetter and lower temperatures and warm colours for hotter and dryer deciles is a particularly effective way to show historical temperature and rainfall.

We print the colourful table on A3 sheets and invite farmers to start talking. Because most farms are multi-generational, they are aware of family stories of dry times in 1930s and 40s and past droughts such as 1982. Growers discuss the impact on production and communities of the Millenium Drought (2002 to 2010) and what is unique about current conditions.

The warming as measured by seasonal temperature or the date of the first day over 30oC highlights that recent droughts have been hotter. We also include the daily time step model APSIM to simulate wheat yields and present the decile and ranking of the yield with, and without, carbon dioxide fertilisation. A series of columns shows the driest runs of 2, 3, 5 and 10 years which raises questions of how to best define drought.

We used the same sheets in workshops with First Nations communities in South Australia. The impact of the Millenium Drought became a focus for discussion of the impacts on the environment, culture and community health. This led into discussion of long oral history prior to climate records.

We will present key findings from these conversations on past droughts.

Supporting communities to recognise their capacities, developing skills in leadership and communication and creating conditions for community action are critical for building resilience. Until recently there had been few programs specifically aiming to improve community resilience. Working with community leaders in two Victorian communities and in collaboration with the Drought Hub network, the Building Capacity for Community-led Drought Resilience Action proof of concept project sought to address gaps in community-based drought resilience capacity.
This presentation reports on a product of this project, a Drought Resilience Facilitation and Leadership Framework, designed to identify, build, and sustain community capacity to implement strategic resilience planning. The Framework acts as a toolkit for use by communities and organisations to develop their skills in several areas including facilitation, monitoring and evaluation, adding to a growing number of resources to support communities to plan for and enact drought resilience action. Opportunities exist to test and further develop the Framework.
This project received funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

Plant growth-promoting (PGP) bacteria help plants grow better and protect them from stress. Their use in agriculture is increasing. This study investigates how PGP bacteria support the growth of tomato plants under drought conditions.
Three Bacillus species were isolated from soil in northwest Victoria and identified using a molecular biological method (16S rRNA). Their drought tolerance was tested. They were applied to tomato plants in a hydroponic system under three drought levels. Growth parameters were measured after eight weeks. The following tests were conducted to find out how bacteria help plant growth. This included whether bacteria reduce plant stress (ACC activity), provide extra nitrogen, help plants absorb iron (siderophores), produce plant growth hormones, and change the soil’s pH (acid or base production)
The Bacillus species showed strong drought tolerance (up to 1.7–2.6 MPa). Plants treated with B. gibsonii grew well under normal conditions and showed a larger root area under drought stress. B. subtilis also slightly increased root growth compared to Bacillus mycoides. This indicates that B. subtilis and B. gibsonii support plant growth by reducing stress, as both showed positive results for ACC activity. However, even with bacterial treatment, shoot growth decreased as drought levels increased.
In conclusion, the application of Bacillus species, particularly B. gibsonii, promoted plant growth under both conditions. further testing is required to evaluate the drought resilience of the tested plants with bacterial application.

Sustainable green dams are developed from existing water bodies on farm. Native and biodiverse plantings within the dam microcatchment and immediately adjacent to the dam wall can result in improved ecosystems services on farm. Further, restriction of livestock entering the dam through the use of managed access corridors is critical to improving water quality and reducing degradation of the dam wall structure. A demonstration site was established at Cape Liptrap, South Gippsland. Improvements in water quality indices, biodiversity and aquatic invertebrate fauna were observed in dams with the new design. The program has attracted more than 125 farmers and growers to field days and discussion forums. The project will now be extended to further properties across South Gippsland in 2025-2026.

The majority of the $1bn GRP vegetable industry based in Gippsland uses both ground and surface water for irrigation. These industries are exposed to significant cost pressures reflecting the price of water for irrigation, and water security. Soil moisture sensing technologies are well established in perennial horticulture in Australia. However the adoption rates for these technologies is relatively low in the vegetable production sector. The project reported here demonstrated the use of advanced soil moisture sensors in raised bed production systems, as well as the ability of those systems to (i) assist in decision making to apply irrigation and (ii) proactively monitor subsurface constraints in drainage. The program was part of a broader national soil moisture sensing project that received funding through the FDF Cross hub initiatives.

Freshwater resources need to simultaneously support environmental and economic outcomes; this is a critical challenge under climate change. Many environmental and economic outcomes have contrasting requirements for water, leading to difficult trade-offs which should be supported by integrated assessments. We analysed the impact of climate change and climate variability on key ecological values and agricultural economic activity simultaneously in a large catchment in Australia and assessed the effect of plausible management adaptation options. Under severe climate change, ecological outcomes were rarely met while the impact on economic outcomes was less severe; annual cropping reliant on low security water allocations was most vulnerable. Under more-likely moderate climate change, altering flow delivery patterns was as effective as altering the total licence volume of environmental water without adversely affecting agricultural benefits. Thus, environmental water management can potentially influence environmental outcomes, while core economic activities continue to be met.

Drought events can have significant agricultural and economic impacts, and in many parts of the world their intensity appears to be increasing with climate change. However, drought measurement remains a highly contested space, with a multitude of indicators across both research and operational settings. This article presents a new drought monitoring and forecasting system: the Australian Agricultural Drought Indicators (AADI). Rather than use common meteorological indicators, AADI attempts to estimate specific agricultural and economic drought impacts. An integrated bio-physical and economic modelling system is developed, which translates gridded climate observations and forecasts into outcome-based indicators of crop yields, pasture growth and farm business profits. These indicators are validated against a range of ground-truth data drawn from survey and administrative sources. Results confirm the benefits of the outcome-based approach with the AADI showing higher correlation with both agricultural (crop yield, livestock fertility) and economic outcomes (farm profits, regional incomes) compared with rainfall measures. The novel farm profit indicator also shows promise as a predictor of drought induced financial stress and flow-on socio-economic impacts.

The rate of suicide in the farming population is elevated compared to other working people and help-seeking barriers exist, but many farmers do cope with stress and reach out for help. The aim of this study was to improve understanding of the factors impacting on farmers’ wellbeing (positively and negatively), how they know when they need external mental health help, and how they would like help delivered. A survey was completed by 134 farmers, farm workers and members of farming families, 17 also took part in an in-depth qualitative interview. Results show farmers have immense pride in their work. Feeling connected, understood, valued and having the skills to cope with life’s challenges were conducive to positive mental health. Isolation, living with uncertainties that surround farming, entrenched unhealthy habits and stigma impacted negatively. Farmers use physical, cognitive and social coping strategies. Noticing concerning changes (thoughts, feelings, behaviours) or being told by others, would signal need for extra help. Preferred supports: immediate, easy access, 24/7, delivered by services with both mental health expertise and understanding of farming. Valued is a confidential, listening ear, speaking in real-time with someone, receiving practical advice. In conclusion, farmers use a range of coping strategies. When external supports are needed, they should be easy to access and provide immediate contact with someone who understands them.

Drought is a major hazard in Australia, posing significant risks to agriculture. Assessing agricultural drought vulnerability is therefore important for drought risk mitigation and management. With droughts likely to become more severe due to climate change, examining drought vulnerability at the local administrative scale is crucial for effective decision-making. This study evaluates the vulnerability of Australia to agricultural drought at the Local Government Areas (LGAs) level across four 5-year periods: 2006, 2011, 2016, and 2021. A systematic literature review identified multidimensional social, economic, and environmental vulnerability indicators, including farm area cropped, farm business profit, farm water use, agricultural occupation, agricultural land use, remoteness, and soil-sand percentage. A sensitivity analysis identified key indicators driving vulnerability. Results show that the vulnerability of LGAs to agricultural droughts has been changing with time, peaking in 2006 and being lowest in 2011 among the four time periods studied. Southeast Australia emerged as a highly drought-vulnerable region, with Victoria having the highest number of LGAs in the most vulnerable category across all study periods. Agricultural occupation, farm area cropped, and remote area residents emerged as the key vulnerability drivers. These findings are critical for policymakers to develop targeted mitigation and adaptation strategies to enhance resilience in vulnerable regions.

For agriculture-dependent communities, resilience includes the ability to respond to change and restore, maintain or improve community wellbeing.
A rapid review of international, Australian and Victorian evidence included peer-reviewed literature, grey literature and stakeholder interviews was conducted to develop a comprehensive picture of agriculture-dependent community resilience initiatives. Following screening of over 12,000 peer-review literature references, 178 (Australian – 83, international – 95) were included for consideration. Stakeholder interviews provided additional evidence of approximately 50 Victorian community resilience-building projects over the previous ten years. Fourteen discrete approaches to resilience building were identified and described through infographs and case studies. Twelve recommendations were proposed as incorporating best practice design elements and approaches for resilience building in agriculture-dependent communities including a focus on prevention; high quality co-ordination; sustainability; place-based approaches tailored to target populations; effective engagement strategies; enabling pathways and opportunities for support; prioritising evaluation; peer-to-peer models of support/engagement; adaptive delivery models; good governance; and purposeful resource development.
Subsequent NCFH presentations during this conference will draw on case studies of resilience-building initiatives that have iteratively applied and extended on these recommendations.

Farmers face diverse and compounding stressors that challenge their mental wellbeing with geographic, financial, seasonal and cultural barriers preventing them accessing mental health services. The Back-on-Track model draws on many of the recommendations identified for building resilience in agriculture-dependent communities (as presented in the earlier session ‘Best practice approaches to building resilience in agriculture-dependent communities: recommendations informed by a review of the evidence’) to address concerns that existing services—even when available—may not reflect farmers' needs.
Integrating lived experience and peer support into mental health services in farming communities is identified as an acceptable way to address barriers to service access. Back-on-Track is a peer-guided model, informed by iterative co-design with the farming community. Peer workers (with experience living and working in a farming community) deliver a 10-session evidence-based Behavioural Activation program to members of their community experiencing low mood. The program is delivered face-to-face or via telehealth, and supported by comprehensive training, resource materials, governance and support structures. Key elements including stakeholder engagement, recruitment and program promotion are tailored to the local context following community consultation.
The Back on Track feasibility trial led by the National Centre for Farmer Health is being conducted in three Victorian farming communities. Trial findings will inform next steps toward a sustainable and scalable support model to better equip farming communities to restore and maintain wellbeing.

The Primary Producer Knowledge Network (PPKN) brought together 23 industry leaders and over 120 partners/industry stakeholders to co-design and co-produce strategies to prevent work-related risks to mental health for primary producers, their workforce and families. A shift in focus from supporting people already experiencing poor mental health to prevention of risk was clearly identified in this process.
A co-design phase (pivoting online during Covid) with 23 producers, service providers and industry stakeholders led to nine recommendations. These guided development of:
- the Campfire digital platform (producing 24 Campfire Conversations led by topic and farming experts providing engaging, action-oriented, solution-focussed stories to assist farmers to proactively improve their work systems)
- a podcast series (20 episodes to date with ongoing content development https://farmerhealth.org.au/category/campfire-podcast)
- blogs (27)
- social media and enews communication
- a Victoria-wide roadshow
- a written resource (digital and hard copy) to convey known work-related risk factors to mental health in a format and context relevant to farmers.
The learnings of Campfire have now been applied in the design of a two-hour interactive workshop for farmers around work-related risks to mental health. The pilot program of seven interactive workshops have been delivered across Western Victoria, attracting 126 participants. Delivery is ongoing in Victoria and other states.

Despite the stress caused by drought, destocking may also offer an opportunity to improve future production efficiency. Retaining the highest-productivity animals may yield economic benefits, but the ensuing increase in whole-farm energy requirements must be balanced against the effects on grazing management and pasture supply. To capture these interactions and analyse the value of selection decisions, changes to genetic potential must be incorporated into a whole-farm bio-economic model with variable climatic conditions.
Self-replacing livestock enterprises were simulated at six locations across southern Australia. Two hundred simulations were run at each location which included several selection strategies to reduce breeding animal numbers by 50% in a drought year. This was followed by ten randomly selected years that allowed the livestock numbers to naturally rebuild to the original stocking rate.
Selecting for animals in better condition that eat more and/or heavier animals that grow faster resulted in reduced supplementary feeding requirements due to an improved ability to utilise available pasture. These strategies also lowered average annual pasture ground cover, impacting farm system sustainability, and as a result the number of days animals were fed in confinement was increased. The trade-offs and benefits identified here provide a portfolio of options that producers can apply to their own circumstances depending on their constraints and the resources available.

Droughts are some of the most devastating natural disasters, resulting in lives and livelihoods lost, famine, and broad economic impacts, with climate change expecting to increase the frequency and intensity in many areas of the world in the coming decades. From innovative technologies and approaches, to harnessing the power of nature, to bringing forward supportive policies and dedicating new funds for resilience building, it will take a proactive, multifaceted approach to address the growing threat of drought.
This session brings together the latest discussion at the UNCCD conference of Parties in Riyadh in December 2024. The session will highlight key outcomes from the global flagship publications launched at UNCCD COP 16 including nature-based solutions to drought resilience, the economics of drought solutions as well as the World Drought Atlas. The design of the session will allow for information sharing, discussion, and active audience engagement, providing the space for identifying innovative solutions and areas of potential collaboration.

This study evaluates the performance of multi-categorical vegetation deterioration (VD) forecasts derived from ensemble root-zone soil moisture forecasts at lead times ranging from one to six months in southeast Australia (2001-2017). VD events were identified from satellite-derived vegetation index anomalies. The study compares probabilistic and deterministic skill, accuracy, and reliability of these forecasts with observations and climatology at a monthly resolution, focusing on the Australian Water Outlook’s (AWO) soil moisture hindcast and historical reference simulations in key grazing and cropping zones. Results show that early warning horizons for most regions are two to four months for mild to severe VD categories, combining vegetation-soil moisture response times (0-2 months) with lead times (1-3 months) from soil moisture forecasts. While accuracy decreases with longer lead times, the ensemble-based method provides valuable probabilistic insights into drought-induced vegetation stress. The framework shows better performance in late growing seasons compared to early seasons, particularly in inland pastoral and dryland cropping zones. Validation with the 2002 drought case study confirms its operational efficacy, providing over 50% probabilistic confidence for early warning at three-month lead times. The research highlights the value of integrating ensemble soil moisture forecasts with impact-based early vegetation stress warnings in Australian agriculture.

The Dingo (Canis familiaris/Canis dingo) plays an important ecological and cultural role in the Australian landscape. The species is listed as vulnerable in Victoria, and there are concerns that the isolated population of Wilkerr (dingoes) in the semi-arid region of northwestern Victoria is fewer than 100 individuals, genetically isolated, and suffering high rates of inbreeding depression. The region is characterised by low surface water availability, and subject to prolonged periods of drought, which increase the potential for conflict between farmers and dingoes over access to limited water.
We used a spatially explicit mark resight model (SMR) using individual Wilkerr location data from 538 cameras and approximately 800,000 photos, collected over four years in the Big Desert-Wyperfeld Cultural Landscape. We modelled the variation in density of this population to environmental variables representing disturbance and proximity to water.
In our presentation we will provide the most robust estimate to date for Wilkerr population size and density. We will discuss the environmental factors that affect dingo populations across their range, along with the conservation and policy implications.

Analysing crop composition shifts over multiple decades in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin reveals how irrigators have responded to droughts, how irrigation develops in regulated river systems over time, and identifies economic, biological and water conveyance vulnerabilities.

Using satellite imagery from 70,000 parcels (460,000 ha), we trained a random forest model to classify 12 crop types. The model achieved high cross-validation (0.97) and accuracy (0.80), excelling in classifying vacant and perennial crops but struggling with annuals. We mapped 30 years of irrigation in our study area, the Southern Murray-Darling Basin.

We found that the composition of irrigated crops was variable across space and time with a trend towards perennials crops. Sub-catchments could be separated into perennial-dominated, annual-dominated and annual-to-perennial transition catchments, with each responding differently during the Millennium (2001-2010) and recent droughts (2017-2019). During droughts, crop extent expanded in perennial-dominated catchments, while irrigation in annual-dominated catchments nearly ceased and never returned to previous levels. Annual-perennial transition catchments showed mixed responses—one continued growing, while the other stalled.

The ongoing shift to perennial crops may cause difficulties in meeting future water conveyance demand, as well as increasing economic and biological risks.

The ‘De-risking the Seeding Program’, led by Ag Excellence Alliance and supported by the SA Drought Hub, has brought together 14 grower groups and four Drought Hubs to extend knowledge and drive adoption of strategic dry and early sown crop establishment approaches. Building on localised projects, the project now spans four states, aiming to mitigate variable opening rains and improve drought resilience of cropping systems. It consolidates past and current research into an extension program delivered by grower groups across southern Australia, promoting locally tailored dry and early sowing practices. Each group has extension activities tailored to meet the specific knowledge, experience, and needs of their members and local communities, with all projects co-designed to ensure regional relevance and capture environmental and farming systems nuances.
The project will leave a legacy through extension networks, resources, information, and learning groups developed to drive practice change. New knowledge has been gained in understanding:
• Use of subsoil moisture through altering sowing depth.
• Crop establishment patterns of different varieties including long coleoptiles.
• Impact of residual herbicides in dry soils on crop establishment.
• Crop establishment in disc versus tyne systems.
• Soil moisture availability in different soil types.

Co-operatives have a long and proud tradition in the agricultural sector. Initially incorporated to help defray transportation costs and make use of bulk purchasing power for farm inputs, they have also given farmers some control over the farm gate price of, and value-adding activity to, their produce. In the modern neo-liberal era of individualism at all costs, co-operatives have been overlooked as a business model for the potential good that they can do against the challenges of climate change.
With 2025 declared the International Year of Co-operatives by the UN, now is the time to remember the benefits of this business structure. No farm is isolated from the affects of drought, and independent actions as solutions are a myth. We all need our communities to survive and thrive. If we are to truly embrace drought resilience, the answer lies in having a farming co-operative for every community so that collaboration overcomes competition.

The circular or closed loop economy has become a big talking point in the war on climate change. Clearly we cannot maintain the current linear movement of resources into and out of a production pipeline from raw input to used and discarded output. But what IS the circular economy? What does it look like in industry terms for the broader agricultural sector? Why are small scale stacked enterprise farms uniquely positioned to lead the way towards a better farming model? Why does it matter that farmers understand the circular economy? Why does it matter that customers and consumers understand the circular economy? How does the circular economy affect you and the every day choices you make and actions you take? How can you implement circular processes and system design thinking into your every day life to help minimise your carbon footprint? This creative reflection will help you see your community, the economy and food production differently in the bigger picture of climate change management.

Incorporating local context, for more effective and feasible farming systems adaptations in response to climate extremes like drought, is challenging. This paper reports on the findings from an action research project aiming to work with vegetable producers in Gippsland, Victoria, to better understand the magnitude of challenges faced in the context of climate variability; to identify existing local adaptation options; and to evaluate whether future adaptation scenarios, developed with producers for their context, could better support adaptation and resilience. The project had a participatory design, with 10 vegetable growers, agronomists and managers participating across two workshops. During workshops, participants provided feedback on modelling and parameters used, described adaptations implemented and what supported or limited those adaptations. From this, spatial maps of climate scenarios were developed for several current or potential future crops and subsequently revised. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify major themes related to climate adaptations implemented and adaptation to future climates.  Growers found the modelling produced was highly relevant to their needs in planning and welcomed being engaged in the discussion. Supporting adaptation will require new opportunities for learning about, and planning for, future climates. The process initiated by the project was an important component of adaptive capacity at an individual and regional scale. 

In 2021 in response to an increase in small landholders in the Corangamite CMA area the Small Blocks Big Dreams project was born. Partnering with Landcare over 150 landholders have learnt about environmental best management practices to kickstart them on their journey to becoming “catchment stewards’ who can provide guidance to other landholders within their local communities.

The aim of the Small Blocks Big Dreams project was to provide participants with environmental management knowledge and skills for them to then develop their own property action plan, while creating a community of likeminded people with access to a network of information and guidance from other landholders and Landcare facilitators within their communities.

Over four years the Small Blocks Big Dreams Project ran 6 rounds of workshops and property tours to support participants in developing a land stewardship action plan for their property. Workshops were tailored to three specific groups of landholders: Small Producers, Bush block owners and Horse owners. Landholders were then offered site visits from CCMA and Landcare staff to set their land stewardship action plans into practice and received $2000 towards their on ground works. Feed back received from participants has been overwhelmingly positive and a second round of the Small Blocks Big Dreams project is underway.

For an overview of the Small Blocks Big Dreams Program please watch:
Small Blocks Big Dreams Land Stewardship 2024 (youtube.com)

Silicon (Si) has demonstrated potential for mitigating drought stress in diverse crop species, enhancing plant defence responses and increasing resilience under drought conditions. Si studies have predominantly focused on cereal crops, as they accumulate more Si in their tissues compared to legumes. Consumer demand for plant protein-based products is projected to increase significantly. Hence, the need for research to enhance legume production under drought-stressed conditions. It was hypothesised that plants that accumulate low Si could benefit from Si's drought-mitigating effects, analogous to high Si-accumulating crops. A glasshouse study was conducted using wheat, a high Si-accumulator, and lentil, a low Si-accumulator. Five foliar Si concentrations (0, 1, 2, 4, & 6 mM) were applied to plants at critical phenological stages under well-watered and drought stress conditions. Drought stress significantly reduced all evaluated plant traits relative to the well-watered control. Si application, particularly at 2 & 4 mM concentrations, substantially reduced drought's detrimental effects on both species. Photosynthetic rate was enhanced and grain yield increased by 66% in wheat and 57% in lentils under drought stress. This emphasises the need for crop-specific studies regardless of Si-accumulating capacity. The results suggest that foliar Si supplementation could enhance drought tolerance in both high and low Si accumulating crops at optimal concentrations of 2-4 mM.

Authentic Learning is a pedagogical design approach that engages students in their learning by appealing to the four key dimensions of: (a) context (b) task (c) impact and (d) personal. Drought is an educationally ideal “wicked problem” that is readily understood and empathized with, by learners on a personal, emotively powerful level. When students want to better understand and “do something” about drought, they are strongly motivated to learn and integrate concepts and examples from domains such as Indigenous Knowledges, climatology, meteorology, hydrology and soil sciences, economics and social sciences. Building resilience to drought and adapting to increased drought risks amidst climatic uncertainty and shifts necessitates multi-pronged approaches that draw upon multiple knowledge bases. By engaging with drought as an integrating concept and problem, students will appreciate the limitations of singular disciplinary perspectives, simplistic explanations and solutions and the need to work across academic, professional and social boundaries to deal with problems over multiple temporal and spatial scales. There are also ample opportunities to highlight the richness of Indigenous Knowledges and Communities in developing sustainable nature-based solutions for the various dimensions of drought resilience. We discuss how various learning activities and technologies can be designed for an authentic, interdisciplinary “drought” subject that would achieve real-world impact.

Five years ago, communities across Australia were devastated by impacts of the 2019/20 bushfires. Many of these communities had already been experiencing significant long-term and multi-sectoral disadvantage, as well as severe drought in the decade prior. These were further exacerbated by the bushfire disaster and significant support gaps emerging in the aftermath.
In response, Fire to Flourish partnered with recovering communities to co-design and pilot a participatory model that supports transformative community action for strengthening resilience. By prioritising community agency, capability building and self-determination, the model is designed to enable communities to lead their recovery, and articulate what is needed to create the conditions for their future resilience.
The presentation outlines findings from resilience co-design workshops and interviews to share insights on what aided and challenged the implementation, and to discuss key community-identified resilience priorities and the increased social and human capital benefits community participants report as having resulted from the community-led processes themselves. Based on this evidence, it concludes by suggesting that community-led transformative resilience processes are important and applicable across different contexts, including long-term stressors such as drought, and short-term shocks caused by a range of natural hazard events.

Isolation in farming communities is at record levels and associated with adverse outcomes for farmers, their environment, and their communities. If we can better connect farmers to services, peers, and communities to help reduce the burden of isolation, we can help them adopt better farming practices and experience benefits to their personal and social lives.

Improving isolation not only requires innovative technology, programs, and practices, but also hinges on the attitudes and behaviours of people in regional communities. Put differently, improving isolation and drought resilience requires people to change their behaviour. Insights from behavioural science, combined with Natural Resource Management (NRM), plays an important role in improving community-level drought resilience.

The presentation will adopt a case study approach by describing a large body of work funded by the FDF's Innovation Grants. Dubbed Land Connected, the program is a partnership between applied national behavioural science organisation, Evidn, and the Fitzroy Basin Association (FBA). Land Connected was designed to reduce isolation and enhance levels of engagement in existing drought resilient programs, activities, and support services throughout Central QLD.

The presentation will describe the project’s analysis & design phase, the ‘proof of concept’ behaviour change strategies, and will end with implications for improving drought resilience across agricultural communities throughout Australia.

Leaky landscapes are lands with poor water retention capability that needs to be rehydrated. However, effective rehydration is often obstructed by a lack of available decision-making frameworks. The primary objective of this study is to propose a multi-criteria decision-making framework to guide future landscape rehydration projects. Landscape rehydration literature was retrieved from 1923 to 2024. The reported interventions were classified to propose a novel classification framework. This classification was then used to develop a six-step multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) tool. We found that research on global catchment rehydration has grown exponentially since 1923, evolving through development (1923 to 1996), growth (1996 to 2015), and rapid growth phases (1996 to 2024). The classification criteria include climatic suitability, topographical suitability, soil type suitability, land use suitability, technological attributes, and socio-economic attributes. The MCDM framework steps include (1) defining objective; (2) identify key criteria; (3) selection of suitable decision-making process (e.g. simple weighted sum models or probabilistic models); (4) weighing of criteria using an analytical hierarchy process or expert judgement; (5) scoring interventions against criteria; and (6) aggregation of scores followed by ranking and selection of interventions. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis demonstrated that this tool is robust and can be used in future landscape rehydration.

We analyze climatological characteristics and links to atmospheric circulation for three-dimensional (3D) heat wave types in several European regions. 3D heat waves are classified according to the vertical structure of positive temperature anomalies in ERA5 into four types: near-surface, lower-tropospheric, higher-tropospheric, and omnipresent. Circulation types are identified using the Jenkinson & Collison classification of daily mean sea level pressure patterns. The results show differences in surface temperature anomalies and dryness among the heat wave types, as well as different links to circulation patterns. The differences are most pronounced between near-surface and higher-tropospheric heat waves and point to processes important for their origin and development. The analysis pays special attention to improving the understanding of the relationships among drought, heat waves, and atmospheric circulation, as well as to how these relationships vary across European regions.

Climate Services for Agriculture is a national scale program funded by the Future Drought Fund and administered by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Its objective is to deliver a suite of useful and valued climate tools and services to support drought resilience and climate risk management and adaptation. The intended users are agricultural businesses, agricultural land managers, and rural, regional, remote and First Nations communities, and the governments that serve them across Australia. In this presentation we will provide a status update on the program and a roadmap with details of activities that will be undertaken in the next four years including:
• Products and services being developed within the program for various users
• Current and intended future state of these products
• A summary of key use cases that the program will serve
• The concept of guided user journeys and the implementation thinking around these and
• Engagement that will be part of ongoing program delivery
The presentation is aimed to be interactive, and the audience is strongly encouraged to provide feedback to the CSA team either at the session or post conference via CSAEnquiries@csiro.au

Since commencement in 2021, The SA Drought Hub has built and enabled partnerships across the agricultural sector at a breadth and scale not previously seen in SA. The Hub has built a large, interconnected network of inter-disciplinary member organisations and guided it in a common direction, helping forge links throughout and across multiple regions and stakeholders. This has achieved farmer-driven drought resilience projects and initiatives which address priorities identified by regional communities and industry blueprints.

To support this and leverage co-investment, strong partnerships have been established with the SA agricultural and natural resources industry-based levy funds and several Research and Development Corporations (RDCs). The Hub has partnered with these organisations where there is an alignment of priorities and common need for co-delivery to develop and collaboratively deliver initiatives across the state through Hub member organisations.

This presentation will discuss the agricultural program delivery and extension ecosystem that exists in South Australia to enable this approach and the key drivers for the success of the program.

Anthropogenic climate change has considerably increased the risk of flash droughts occurring throughout the world as a result of global warming. Therefore, drought will become a rapidly developing disaster for societies and ecosystems. How the seasonality of flash droughts is likely to change in a future warmer climate remains unknown due to the lack of consensus on the detection of flash droughts and the difficulty of forecasting them due to their abrupt and relatively localized nature. Here, we use soil moisture from the Community Earth System Model large ensemble (CESM2-LE) simulations with the SSP3-7.0 scenario to address the shift of the flash drought seasonality. We find that the risk ratio will increase and will more than double in November, December, January, and May by the end of the 21st century. The likelihood of a shift in the flash drought season is projected to increase in the future. The months of June to August are the most exposed seasons, with July presenting the highest risk. Almost half of the flash drought season will shift in the future. The distribution of the flash drought risk ratio shows an increase in the likelihood of high-risk flash droughts in the future, particularly in March, June, and September, where the risk ratio becomes greater than four. Our findings suggest that the shift of the flash drought season will lead to social and economic disruptions, limiting early warning and adaptation preparedness.

This project aimed to accelerate the adoption of containment feeding systems on Southern Australian farms, leveraging proven benefits such as enhanced productivity, reproductive performance, pasture management, drought resilience, and profitability. To overcome adoption barriers, the project aimed to train a network of containment feeding advisors to work directly with farming systems groups and livestock producers. The pilot program included a series of small-group workshops, one-on-one consultations, and resources adapted to different regions and stages of adoption.

The project, led by Dr Penny Schulz, has resulted in a community of containment feeding advisers that stretches across SA, VIC and TAS, benefitting multiple regions. The project utilised technical expertise from Deb Scammell, Talking Livestock, and Cam Nicholson, Nicon Rural Services.

Five farming systems groups in South Australia participated in the pilot program, nominating local advisors for training to support their regions, while another ten advisors from Tasmania and Victoria also participated in advisor training, consequently delivering regionalised pilot programs in their areas. In South Australia, five pilot workshops reached nearly 50 producers, with follow-up farm visits to develop tailored implementation plans. This pilot initiative shows significant promise in driving the adoption of containment feeding, supported by a skilled advisory network poised to enhance farm resilience and productivity.

Diversity enables systems resilience and as such is a technology that can support resilience of agricultural systems to climate events, including drought. Current dairy pasture production in Victoria is predominantly perennial ryegrass (PRG) monocultures, which are productive with inputs of nitrogen (N) and water, but struggle under dry conditions. Increased climate variability alongside increased awareness of soil health and the environmental impacts that can come with high N fertiliser use are challenges to long-term sustainable production of PRG pastures. Multispecies pastures, containing a combination of grasses, legumes and herbs, are an alternative that has the potential to address these challenges.
We conducted research across 11 dairy farms in Victoria over 2 years to assess the potential for multispecies pastures to provide drought resilience to Victorian dairy farmers. Using a paired paddock approach we compared pasture production across three climate regions (Gippsland, NE Victoria, Western District) and different soils (farms) from PRG and multispecies pastures.
We found that extension of the growing season occurred with the multispecies pastures, particularly at the drier sites. Species diversity within the pasture varied over time, reflecting soil moisture, climate and land management practices. Diversity in multispecies pastures provides clear drought resilience benefits and the long-term maintenance of this diversity will be influenced by management.

Biochar technologies and soil amendment can improve water availability with many co-benefits. Various biochar amendments were demonstrated at our solar farm located in Waurn Ponds, Victoria. The mixed farm on sodosol clay soils supports broad-acre cropping and pasture below a 7 MW solar PV and battery microgrid. Biochar was produced from woody waste by pyrolysis at 600°C in a commercial kiln. Reactive storages (RS) were installed to capture rainfall runoff below the drip line of three solar PV panels. The RS were trenches (0.3 m width, 0.6 m depth), with burial of biochar mixes covered by soil and pasture. Liquid biochar was sprayed 3 m on both sides of RS.
Intensive monitoring showed up to 10 times more moisture was stored in biochar-RS within hours of a 37 mm rainfall event. In the weeks after this rainfall the average soil moisture changes were +46 litres/metre of biochar-RS, and +280 tonnes/hectare (25 Litres/m2) below the pasture sprayed with liquid biochar and at 0.5 m distance from the RS. The value of extra water storage in the liquid biochar area was estimated at ~$336 /hectare, assuming $1200 /MegaLitre. A co-benefit was that merino sheep preferentially grazed on pasture growth in biochar-amended areas and below the solar panels. The research is also evaluating biochar-fertilizers and physio-chemical-biological influences on the soil. Further work is needed to verify the net benefits of biochar for ‘sponge’ like soil at a large scale for drought resilience.

This presentation will feature the role of various actors to address drought proactively, across sectors and scales, putting a spotlight on options that are integrated and inclusive. The role of empowering vulnerable populations in reducing vulnerability, enhancing resilience and disaster risk reduction will be emphasized.
I will introduce the International Drought Resilience Observatory (IDRO), the first global, AI-powered data platform for proactive drought management that we launched at COP 16. This initiative is developed in the framework of the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA). The Observatory will provide a single portal where managers can easily analyze and visualize key social and environmental drought resilience indicators — and use them to make practical decisions.

Agricultural supply chains are coming under increasing pressure to lower emissions to meet national and sector-wide emissions reduction targets. In Australia’s cotton industry, strategies to mitigate emissions at the farm level have been the focus of research.An investment analysis applying floating photo voltaic (FPV) arrays on irrigation reservoirs, together with the production of hydrogen and/or green ammonia using a discounted cash flow over 25 years, showed that the cost of production remains in excess of traditional energy sources derived from fossil fuels. However, the scenario analysis revealed substantial cotton lint bale emissions reduction. Emissions were lowered by 6 kg CO2e per bale (34%) by adding FPV energy to the grid-powered gin, and a 15 kg CO2e per bale reduction from producing green ammonia used as crop nitrogenous fertiliser. A third combination of the FPV powering the seasonal demand of cotton ginning and out-of-season green ammonia production lowered emissions by 23 kg CO2e per bale. Ancillary benefits of applying FPV include addressing public concerns about water security and the alternative of irrigation reservoirs to house large-scale renewable energy facilities and in doing so, protect prime agricultural land.

Perennial ryegrass pastures are the mainstay of pasture-based dairy farming in southern Australia. Growing variability in rainfall and climate change including summer drought, impact their production. Multispecies pastures with plants that have varying water stress responses and root depths can help improve summer growth compared to shallow-rooted ryegrass. However, there is limited knowledge on soil moisture dynamics across different pasture systems. The objective of this study was to compare the soil moisture dynamics under multispecies and ryegrass pastures in different climate conditions. Soil moisture was measured in comparative pastures at the paddock scale under rainfed conditions at three dairy farms in Victoria. Two 80 cm capacitance probes (EnviroPro®) were installed in each paddock to monitor volumetric soil moisture at 10 cm depth increments. On one farm, a non-destructive CI-602 root imager was used to view root architecture under both pastures to 70 cm. The greatest fluctuation in soil moisture occurred in the top 30 cm of soil, mainly driven by rainfall and pasture removal, During the summer, subsoil moisture (>30 cm) decreased more in the multispecies pasture than in the ryegrass pasture, suggesting that deeper-rooted species accessed water from lower soil layers. The images revealed roots at depth only in the multispecies paddock. These findings indicate that multispecies pastures are a viable option for improved pasture growth under dry conditions.

Agricultural extension systems have undergone significant transformation, shifting from traditional top-down information dissemination to participatory approaches that emphasise knowledge co-production. Within this evolving landscape, grower groups and farming systems groups have emerged as key facilitators of climate and drought resilience.
The South-West WA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub (the Hub), led-by and operating in collaboration with the Grower Group Alliance (GGA) network, is dedicated to enhancing the adoption and extension of drought resilience initiatives through direct engagement with grower groups. Findings from GRDC’s 2024 grower survey indicate that grower groups are the third most accessed source of agricultural advice, with 52% of respondents nationally seeking their guidance—an inclination particularly strong in Western Australia (63%), followed by southern (56%) and northern (43%) regions.
There is growing evidence of a shift in Australian agriculture from production-centric models to integrated climate resilience strategies, particularly within grower groups and farming communities. GGA’s own surveys highlight increasing interest in sustainability-focused initiatives among grower groups.
This study presents an analysis of the role and impact of grower groups participating in drought and climate resilience projects, examining their contributions to knowledge exchange, adoption pathways, and long-term agricultural sustainability.

Sustainability frameworks guide agriculture toward farm-ecosystem and economic resilience amid uncertainties, including drought. Every major agricultural sector developing these frameworks prioritises soil health to sustain productivity. Healthy soils enhance water retention, microbial activity, and nutrient cycling—key for drought resilience and recovery. However, no standardised approach exists for measuring soil biological health, leaving growers without clear benchmarks for sustainable soil management.

This project presents a case study of 20 paddocks within a 40 km radius in Victoria’s Wimmera region. We define a process for developing soil health standards based on microbial community traits linked to productive soils. Unlike taxonomic markers, functional traits reveal a soil community's capabilities and responses to environmental pressures, linking soil ecology with management practices. Our process is scalable, enabling region-specific soil health benchmarks relevant across diverse landscapes.

Our research identifies two suites of bacterial functional traits linked to low- and high-productivity states, offering biological indicators of soil health and resilience. Understanding the ecology of these soil states enhances our ability to support management strategies that improve productivity under variable conditions.

Private agronomists are key drivers of research adoption in Australian Agriculture. Their expertise, trust, and ability to provide practical, farm-specific advice make them essential for farmers and research organisations looking to integrate the latest innovations while at the same managing associated risks.
Engaging Private Agronomists in the full cycle of research can significantly speed up information flow and research adoption. This increases the returns on research investment.

Weather events, such as droughts, floods and bushfires, which are becoming more extreme in
response to the impact of climate change, in addition to a range of human activities, enhance
the underlying conditions that favour the formation and prolonged presence of both harmful and
nuisance cyanobacterial (also knowns as blue-green algae) blooms in Victoria. Such blooms are
often described as harmful algal blooms (HABs). The objectives of this study are to bring three water corporations, who use the
Murray River as a source water for some of their drinking water supply systems, together with
the MRIC to:
1. Investigate the factors that cause cell accumulation to occur specifically in clarification and
sludge thickening processes at selected water treatment plants (herein defined as a net
increase over time of cells in supernatant or sludge) and
2. Discuss feasible interventions, including, but not limited to, appropriate treatment
technologies, to break the cycle of cell accumulation so as to reduce the overall risk that
cyanobacterial metabolites will occur in the product water at concentrations that exceed
health or aesthetic guideline values, or would cause issues with the effectiveness of
treatment processes.

The study examines the effect of drought on farmland businesses throughout Australia, especially considering the impacts of long-term adaptation and intensification. Fixed-effects panel regression models are used, incorporating the self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index as the primary drought measure. From the Business Longitudinal Analysis Data Environment of ABS and the Bureau of Meteorology, panel data of farmland businesses in Australia from 2002 to 2023 and climate data are used. The short-term analysis assesses current-year drought effects while accounting for other economic and environmental factors, the results do not show a negative impact of drought. However, adding a one-year lag of drought to capture the intertemporal impacts totally change the results, which shows a more severe drought in the prior year worsens financial performance, suggesting that short-term drought impacts are not isolated but influenced by past conditions. Based on the short-term models, the long-term analysis incorporates historical drought exposure, which averaging more than 30 years of SCPDSI data. This approach reveals that farms in regions with mild long-term drought histories are more resilient to current drought conditions, whereas those in areas with moderate long-term drought exposure face worsening financial challenges. These findings highlight the complexity of drought’s economic effects and emphasize the need for long-term adaptation strategies to enhance farm resilience.

Children are especially vulnerable to climate-change impacts on their mental health. It is anticipated that prolonged drought may reduce children’s educational performance. There is an urgent need to assess the effects of drought on children’s educational performance in Australia; this has important implications for both future development and education disparity.
This study aims to estimate the impact of drought on child education performance. The NAPLAN (National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy) scores (reading, writing, language conventions, and numeracy) will be used to first estimate the impact of drought at student level. Second, NAPLAN scores (mean, median, first and third quartiles) at the regional level (Statistical Area 2) will be estimated to identify if droughts influence children at the bottom score distribution more than those at the top.
In addition, we seek to identify the impact pathways and heterogeneity. First, student characteristics and drought measurements will be used to identify if particular subgroups are vulnerable to the impacts of drought. The SA2 level dataset will be used to test the impact pathways of drought, through teacher number, student attendance, and school investment. We plan to present the preliminary results of the study at the Drought Resilience 2025 conference and seek valuable feedback from conference participants.